The Beginning of Forever
by sunnycouger
Summary: They were happy, in love and fate destined them to be together forever no matter what life threw at them. Forever has to begin somewhere, right? A series of fics chronicling Troy and Gabriella's life together post High School.
1. Of Sunsets & Trusty White Pickup Trucks

The Beginning of Forever

Of Sunsets and Trusty White Pick-up Trucks

Summary – They were happy, in love and fate destined them to be together forever no matter what life threw at them. Forever has to begin somewhere, right? TG

Author's Note – This is a prequel series to my story All The King's Horses. Do not worry if you haven't read it – these are basically going to be one-shots that deal with their life post High School. There are going to be four or five parts to this and for the most part I intend for it to be pretty light and happy. The idea is that if you've read All The King's Horses you can see how they got to the point they ended up in that story, and if you didn't then you just get to see hopefully the progression of their relationship whilst choosing which point you want to have their ending.

The italic intro to the story comes from the section of All The King's Horses that inspired the one-shot – but again you don't have to read that fic to hopefully understand these ones as it is set a few years in the future so has no bearing one what is happening in these oneshots. I hope you guys like – I know it is a massive risk to do this considering my normal style tends to lend itself towards heavier fic but the arc got stuck in my head and I have to write them for my own sanity. I hope you all enjoy anyway.

Disclaimer – I own nothing.

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_Did you know that I fell in love with you when you climbed my balcony and sang to me to apologise? It had broken my heart when I heard you say I meant nothing to you and I didn't understand why because we had only really known each other for a few days, but that night when you came and put me back together again, I realised why it had hurt so bad and suddenly, with you beside me I felt like I could do anything._

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The sun was setting in the horizon casting an orange glow over the whole town making it look like everything shimmered. It was still hot despite the late hour and Gabriella Montez found herself tilting her head back, trying to encourage the faint breeze to cool her skin. She knew she shouldn't be here but she couldn't help herself – it would be the last time she could do this after all and it seemed necessary to have one last night, one last moment here on this balcony, in this town where so much of her life had changed for the better.

She ran her hand across the railing and sighed, ignoring the ache in her heart at the knowledge that this was the last time she would be here. In a day she would be a thousand miles away because Gabriella Montez would no longer be a citizen of Albuquerque – instead she would just be another California girl living in a large city, starting in a new college where she didn't know anyone as she tried to keep her head above water whilst attempting to be an adult. It was a terrifying prospect and she yearned for it to have been a year earlier so she could go back and relive her senior year fully and savour every moment that she hadn't fully enjoyed first time around.

Her life had changed so much in such a small space of time that she just wished it would stop so she could enjoy it. So she could enjoy fitting in, and having friends, and being settled – but her life wasn't meant to go that way. It was meant to go somewhere else that wasn't here, but at least it was meant to go somewhere else with someone else.

She smiled as she leant against the white railing, her back to the tree and her eyes looking at the slightly grubby closed balcony doors that she had walked through more times that she would ever be able to count in the last year and a half. If there was one good thing with this being her last night in Albuquerque it was that she wouldn't be leaving on her own – in the seat next to her would be the love of her life.

Troy Bolton – the best thing about the town she had grown to love was leaving to go to California with her. In fact, he was the one driving her to their new home. Deep down she couldn't believe that she had agreed to let him drive her in his hunk of junk truck, but she didn't have the heart to tell him that she had decided to leave three days earlier because of the number of break-downs she knew would occur on their thousand mile journey. That didn't matter though – she just wanted to spend the time with him and if half that time was spent at the side of the road waiting for the breakdown truck then so be it. He was worth it.

He was more than worth it.

She couldn't help the smile come to her face as she thought about her boyfriend – how many times had he climbed this balcony? She could remember the very first time with perfect clarity – they had a misunderstanding and she had been hurt and refused to see him and he had called her up, scaled her tree and sang to her to apologise. She had been a goner from the second she had opened the doors to look at him that night and the strange thing was that he never even realised that he had the affect on her. That had been the start of his balcony escapades and he pretty much made the journey every other night from then on in. Occasionally he would come with a picnic, sometimes it was in the middle of the night so they could lay together, other times it was merely because he needed an escape and she happily provided him with it. There was one point at the start of senior year when he was getting swamped by basketball pressure from everyone while she could only watch as she saw a ten different people trying to pull him in ten different directions and him slowly letting it eat away at him. She couldn't let that happen so she had taken him to the rooftop garden at East High and handed him a copy of her balcony door key and an open invitation to use it whenever he needed to – just to escape, no questions asked. She wouldn't make him talk to her about why he needed to get away, but she would always listen if he wanted to tell her but she just wanted him to know that if he needed somewhere to go with no pressure, no expectation then he could go to her anytime.

She hadn't understood how badly he had needed that refuge at the time, but the following day she had come home from studying with Taylor and Kelsi to find him crashed out on her bed and it had continued from there. When he needed to escape he would escape to her. There was one night where she had woke up and found him sleeping awkwardly in the chair at the other end of her room. He had woken up that morning, having fled from yet another recruitment speech from his father about his future and another multiple hour practice that was to be followed by another early morning workout on a Saturday, to find her curled in his lap, her head against his chest and her hand running through his hair comfortingly. He had been embarrassed at being caught, but she didn't care – she had told him to come whenever he had to and she trusted him and she knew he would look after her and wouldn't try and take advantage, which is why she banned him from sleeping in the chair from then on in. They weren't sleeping together in the sexual context at that point, but they had literally slept together every few nights pretty much since then – him sneaking out and leaving early before his parents or anyone else would find out. It hadn't even been a conscious arrangement either – more a mutually shared thought that told them that, actually, nothing prepared them for the day better than falling asleep with the other one beside them, or waking up with the other's arms around them. Pressure, stress, expectation...they disappeared because they were the only people who didn't have expectations about the other. It was just them.

She sighed as she walked over to the balcony doors and rested her head against them, silently wishing the clock back to when it was just them again. Here there was nothing between them – the distance was negligible and they knew exactly what and who they were. He was the Wildcat superstar and she was the school braniac who had somehow captured his attention and rewrote the High School script. They knew who they were in Albuquerque because the other was right there beside them. In a few days though, the other would be miles and miles away and she was scared that with all that craziness around them, that maybe they wouldn't be the same people any more.

32.7 miles would be the distance between them now – 40 minutes instead of 10 and although she was beyond grateful that he was so close, she still yearned for them to be closer still. Late night visits would be a rarer thing now, and combined with a whole new group of pressures, including new friends, new...prospects, it made her nervous. Scared.

She bit down on her lip and softly began to hum a song very familiar to this balcony, hoping that it held true. "This could be the start of something new..." she whispered, barely audible over the gentle breeze. "Please, please let it work out that way."

"You know, I figured I would find you here."

She jumped slightly at the sound of the warm voice from behind her and immediately spun around to find Troy Bolton sitting in the tree beside her balcony. She knew she should have yelled at him for startling her, or for spying on her, or for climbing a tree but she couldn't stop from smiling as she looked at him grinning at her, his sunglasses failing to disguise his amusement. "House breaking, Ms Montez? You're supposed to rebel in High School, not once you're in college."

She rolled her eyes as she walked over to the railing beside him and leant on it with a smirk. "You know, technically, I'm just trespassing as the balcony isn't locked, Wildcat."

"Technically I guess that means I'm a trespasser right alongside you then," he laughed as he leant over and kissed her lips softly. "Hey beautiful, whatcha doing up here on your own?"

"Just...thinking, I guess," she smiled as she held her hand out for him, encouraging him to jump over to her side. "Want to join me in a life of crime, Troy Bolton?"

"Damn, you graduate and go on a crime spree. Gabi – this does not bode well for when we get to California," he joked as he jumped over the railing, before he leant down and kissed her cheek in greeting. "It's kinda hot to have a bad girl as a girlfriend though."

She rolled her eyes and slapped him lightly on the chest. "Maybe I should go and buy a leather jacket and get a tattoo then...keep you interested."

"Maybe..." he murmured as he kissed her hair. "I could sell my truck and get a motorcycle – the pair of us could turn all badass."

Gabriella giggled then as she looked up at him as he grinned down at her. "You have a rebellion fantasy, huh?"

"Years of being the Golden boy will do that to a guy," he smirked. "We should work on that at one point. We'll go get piercings, and matching tattoos and I'll die my hair black and you can get blue streaks or something in yours and we'll terrorise the campuses at Stanford and Berkley with our badass ways before retreating home to have wild sex that keeps the neighbours up all night."

Normally she would have blushed, but the teasing way her spoke and the way his eyes glistened with suppressed laughter prevented her from getting embarrassed. The two of them were, for the lack of a better phrase, late bloomers in High School terms in regards to their sexual progression especially considering the depth of their relationship in comparison to the one night or one week norms around them, and a few short months ago that sort of joke would not have been possible without one, or more likely both of them turning bright red and stammering a response. His trip to California had progressed their relationship on a number of levels though and although neither had spoke about what had happened with anyone else, when they were together they could talk and indeed laugh and play about with that side of their relationship without fear of awkwardness.

"Sounds good. I guess I'll start wearing leather pants and torn vests to lectures, scarring the law students for life..."

"I really don't think that will scar anyone," he teased as he nudged her. "But in all seriousness, if you want to buy a pair of leather pants you should definitely do that...although you should do it at a time when you have a spare couple of days because I doubt we will be leaving the apartment much afterwards."

She leant her head against his chest, smiling the whole time as he instinctively wrapped his arms around her, his warm skin causing her to tingle. "I guess now I know what I should dress up as at Halloween, huh?"

"And that is why you're the best girlfriend in the world although, again, probably wouldn't be seeing a whole lot beyond my apartment if you did that so I give you adequate warning." She could do nothing but laugh at his expression and he winked at her, causing her heart to flutter in her chest. "Hey come on, we should totally go crash your old room befo..." he had kissed her head again before he let go and went over to the balcony doors, trying to open them. "Why did you lock the doors after you?"

"I didn't?" she said in a questioning tone, confused as to why he would be trying to get in the doors. It wasn't her house anymore so she clearly wouldn't have the keys after all.

"How did you get in th... oh no. Please tell me you did not climb this tree on your own?" Troy pleaded as he looked at the locked doors in frustration. "Ugh, Gabriella – what if you had fallen?"

"How did you really think I got up here? It's not our house anymore, Troy. I can't go out via my bedroom door now."

"I just kinda figured that your mom still had a key or something," he muttered as he looked down at the ground then at her and shook his head. "You could have killed yourself. You could have broken your leg, or your neck and no one would have known and you could be dead right now and...God, I don't even want to think about what I would do then..."

He trailed off, biting down on his lip with a shake of his head, clearly not enjoying the scenarios his mind was running with at that moment.

"Troy, I didn't fall – and I didn't break anything."

She was trying to reassure him, she was but all it seemed to do was make it worse. "This time. Babe, no offence, but...you're kinda small and I know I'm not the tallest guy on the planet but I am a guy and slightly sturdier than you so if I fall, it will hurt like hell but I'll be okay. If you fall then bones will break and one of them could be your neck and I'd rather that didn't happen so you need to keep yourself safe, ok? Yeah, I know I'm a pain in the ass and over-protective and all that, but...I need you to be safe..."

"You climb it all the time," she defended herself before she sunk down on the ground beside the doors, pulling him down with her. "It's not as easy as you make it look though."

"No shit," he said as he looked down to see her scraped up knee. "How about you leave the tree climbing to me? Or at least wait until I'm with you from now on? Please?"

"Okay," she conceded as she leant her head on his shoulder, taking a deep breath and enjoying the comfort just being in that sort of proximity to him caused. She wasn't sure what it was about him, but she had to imagine that no drug could compare to the way he could make her feel. "I'm sorry but I just had to come here one last time."

"You okay?" he asked as he stroked her hair, twirling a curl round his finger causing her to smile. He seemed to have acquired a fascination with her hair since she grew it out again and 90% of the time she was sure that he didn't even notice he did it. It may have been one of the reasons that she wore her hair down so often now... "You've been a bit...withdrawn the last couple of days. Nervous?"

She sighed and nodded as she played with his fingers. How to answer that without being stupid and admitting all her irrational thinking? She couldn't think of a good way to honestly answer the question, so she settled on deflection and hoped he would buy it. "Just...I'm going to miss being here. I loved this house and I'm going to miss this balcony. Being able to sit with you on it like this...so many good things happened here."

"We'll find somewhere else to hang," he promised as he kissed her head.

She nodded her head and smiled. She had no doubt that they would – Troy was nothing if not resourceful and romantic and she knew that they would be fine in regards to having alone time, or a place that was just theirs.

"Can you believe that we're leaving tomorrow? I thought...I thought I would be used to the idea of leaving a place, but...I don't know, it feels so different this time. So...permanent."

"You already left," he said as he caressed her hand. "It's not any different, except I'll be with you this time."

She couldn't help but smile at that knowledge as she kissed his shoulder. She knew that, but she couldn't help the way she felt and she didn't really know how to explain it either as it barely made sense to her. "You know when we first saw the house here in the brochure I told my mom that I wanted the room with the balcony. I had this Romeo and Juliet thing going through my head and in my head I kept thinking 'the new school is going to be different and I'm going to be cool, and popular and no one is going to think I'm a freaky math girl, and I can use it to sneak out to see my friends and stuff'. When I actually moved in though, all thougts of this great new version of me went away and I knew that it was just going to be the exact same as every other place I'd been to." She giggled slightly as she leant her head closer to him, the memories of a whole other lifetime flitting through her head. How could it have only been two years ago? "All I could think that night was that I had finally met someone who I could be myself with and he was somewhere in Colorado while I was in a new place in Albuquerque where, invariably I would just be the freaky new girl and the whole thing kinda lost its appeal. It just seemed so typical of me. And then I go to school and find out that the boy from Colorado was actually from Albuquerque and for the first time in forever things made sense and the imaginary life I dreamt about actually came true. Because of you."

Her eyes closed for a moment and he brought her hand to his lips. "You know, when you disappeared that night at the ski-lodge, all I could think about was that I had to see you again. That whole night I looked at my phone and thought about calling you but I chickened out because I wanted you to think I was cool because, according to Chad, 'chicks dig guys who aren't desperate' so I made myself wait until I saw you in the morning. Only, I didn't see you in the morning because we left and all I could think was that I was an idiot because it became kinda apparent that there had always been something missing after I met you. And then you showed up and it was like...like it all fit. Everything that was so simple before was suddenly messy, but it felt good. I didn't even have an idea about who I really was until you showed up – I was like the perfect prototype of who everyone thought I should be, and then I took a chance and it was like...wow! You have no idea. You were the first, the only person who ever looked past the smoke and mirrors and wanted to know the real me and didn't expect anything from me."

"Who wouldn't want to know the real you? The real you is amazing," she said as she stroked his chest. "You never give yourself enough credit."

"And you always give me too much credit," he pressed another kiss to her hair. "Thank you though."

She nuzzled his chest in response as he squeezed her fingers. "Tell me what's really bothering you, Gabi. Let me help."

She allowed the gentle thud of his heart to calm her. "This is the only place I've ever felt home," she admitted quietly. "And that's because of you. I'm...scared that we'll go out there and you'll realise that I'm not really worth the effort and I'll be drifting again."

"You're worried that I'm going to leave you once we get out there?"

She nodded her head, but didn't lift her gaze to look at him, instead concentrated on playing with his fingers. "Chad said that guys don't take the girl with them, and Taylor said no one ends up with the person they were with in High School, and that there are a lot of good looking girls out there and I should 'prepare' myself because college is different and everyone wants things that are exciting and new and I'm...neither..."

He took a deep breath and pulled her a little closer to him. "There's an increasingly apparent reason why those two split up," he muttered as he shook his head. "Gabriella – we're going to California together. If I didn't want to take the girl with me, I would have stayed in Albuquerque and we both could have written this off as a High School infatuation. I didn't make the decision to leave lightly – trust me, I sat down and I thought about it. I thought about what the chances were that we would grow apart once we were out there and you were surrounded by people as smart as you are and I was surrounded by other people and you know what? I realised that I'm not worried about it. This...what we have, it's different. I don't even know how to explain it properly, but it's just different. It's like...I met you for a reason. You're supposed to be mine and I'm supposed to be yours – nothing works for me when you're not there."

"Nothing works for me either," she lifted her head and looked at him through her teary eyes as she stroked his face. "I felt like I was torn apart when we weren't together – that's why I was scared about coming back and doing it again. I was scared I wouldn't be able to get back together again if I had to leave you again."

"I know," he kissed her forehead and sighed. "We don't need to worry about that anymore though. Just you and me...and 32.7 miles between us."

"32.7 miles," she smiled as she stroked his face. "Is it just me or does that still seem too far?"

"It is way too far, but it's temporary," Troy whispered before he leant down and kissed her lips. "We have time. We have forever. Plus, I'm kinda hoping that you are going to become a semi-permanent fixture at my apartment and you know you're not going to be able to get rid of me out of yours."

She smiled and leant back down against his chest. They sat in silence for a little while just enjoying being able to be with each other like this.

"You excited?" she asked as he leant his head against hers, and she felt him shrug. "Nervous?"

"I'm ready," he said finally. "I'm ready to do this – I know I made the right decision, but I'm scared about paying bills, and cooking, and doing my own laundry...I know I'm going to dye multiple articles of clothing before I get the hang of it and I'm worried I'll end up training in a bright pink shirt and give off completely the wrong impression to my new team-mates, although the drama kids might like it I suppose."

"Just be careful you don't shrink them by putting them in too hot a wash. Then they will be pink and skin-tight and a whole different group of kids would really, _really_ like it," she giggled as she glanced up at his horrified face. She could see the scenarios running through his head and somehow she knew he wouldn't be finding them as amusing as she did. "You know, I may consider being a really cool girlfriend and help you with your laundry until you get the hang of it, thus keeping shrunk and dyed clothes to a minimum."

"You're too kind," he responded with a roll of his eyes as he pulled her around slightly so he could look at her easier. "It's going to be so weird not having the guys show up for a bounce game, or have my mom making lasagne on a Tuesday night, or sneaking into your room to hide from everything. It's going to take a while to get used to the whole idea that we're really going to be out there on our own. My mom's going to be in Albuquerque and your mom is going to be all over and it's really just going to be us out there making our own decisions, our own mistakes."

"I know – it's like, one minute we're us and then we're going to be grown-ups with responsibilities that extend beyond solving a mathematic equation in thirty seconds, or netting a basket. It's...surreal I guess but I'll be there the whole time, I promise. We'll help each other keep the mistakes to a minimum and we'll learn how to be adults together – we'll be fine."

She tried to sound confident and sure of herself but she couldn't help but thing her last statement sounded more like a question.

"I know we'll be fine," he responded with a smile. As much as it shouldn't have, just the knowledge that he was worried about the same things that she was worried about calmed her down because she suddenly realised that she wasn't over reacting. Maybe these were normal fears after all. "So what are you scared off – apart from the ridiculous thought that I'm going to run off with some other girl as soon as we get out there?"

"Smartass," she murmured as she swatted his chest. "Just so you know, in your first theatre group you step up and sing and dance with this beautiful blonde and want to ditch me for her, I will be reminding you of this conversation."

He groaned as he buried his head in her neck. "Let's not even talk about potential leading ladies, please. The whole theatre thing sounded so much better before I had to think about that whole side of it. I couldn't even dance with Sharpay when you were gone never mind anything else."

She felt bad about teasing him now as the last thing she wanted was for him to feel awkward or uncomfortable about his new course. She knew he could be amazing if he embraced it, but a part of her understood his wariness as she knew from her perspective that she only felt comfortable and confident on the stage when he was with her and it just didn't feel right doing it when it was with someone else. He had sung with other people before, in particular Sharpay but he had felt so wrong afterwards that he had almost decided against doing it again. She didn't want that for him though – she wanted him to be happy and if there was a chance that theatre could make him happy, she was going to try and help him embrace it in whatever way she could. "Troy, it's only acting. I know it's nothing for me to worry about..." she paused as she bit down on her lip. "Hopefully, anyway."

"Definitely," he corrected quickly, still nuzzled into her neck. "I just...I don't know, the whole thought of it doesn't even excite me anymore. Singing with you, acting with you, kissing you...that's what makes me love it. It's all about you."

"I'll still be there for every show. I'll just be in the front row instead of on the stage with you," she promised. "You will have your very first fan girl before you've even performed."

"Will you wear an 'I love Troy Bolton' t-shirt? Because that could be kinda hot..."

She rolled her eyes and leant back. "I've to wear your name on my back when I watch you play basketball, to wear it on my front when I watch you on stage – why don't I just tattoo it on me and I will wear it all the time?"

He paused as though he was considering it. "That would definitely not be something I would complain about..."

She giggled and slapped him again before leaning further back in his embrace. "Be careful what you wish for, Wildcat – at this rate you'll never be able to get rid of me."

"My plan is working then," he breathed into her ear, causing her to giggle some more and grab his arms tighter around her. "I just...it won't be the same now. You know, not working with you, or singing Kelsi's songs, or learning Ryan's choreography, or laughing at Jason trying not to fall over while doing Ryan's choreography, or wondering how the hell Chad ended up dressed as a clown in a show about senior year..."

"Apparently it was because he had upset Taylor and she made him dress up like that to atone so she could shoot it for Yearbook."

"Really? And he had the audacity to call me whipped," Troy muttered before shaking his head, trying to refocus. "I just don't think it will be the same without all that. I mean I've tried the whole 'let's do it with other people thing' and it doesn't work for me. In fact the whole 'let's do it with other people thing' actually kinda sucks."

"I know, but you never know - it might be better. I mean you will be working with people who won't have a nervous breakdown before every performance for example," she joked, immediately thinking of the Twinkle Towne opening night where she had been so nervous she had accidentally locked herself in her dressing room and had to breathe through a bag to stop from hyperventilating whilst Troy and Ryan tried to get the door loose as Ms Darbus lectured about amateurs and Sharpay fired countless sarcastic comments to her. "You'll be great, Troy and if you hate it then at least you know that maybe it's not right for you. But you have to go in with an open mind."

"Kinda like you're doing with the pre-law plan?" he asked softly. Troy was the only person who knew about her concerns about going on the pre-determined law course that she and her mother had plotted when she was eleven years old. Unfortunately, eleven year old Gabriella had no loftier ambition than to make her mom and dad proud in life while eighteen year old Gabriella had other things she wanted as well that didn't fit into the plan. When Gabriella looked in the mirror she couldn't see any glimpse of a lawyer in there – the whole idea did not mesh with her personality and she had been willing to give it up to stay in Albuquerque with the man who was holding her just now, but his decision to move to California meant she would give it a try and attempt to be the person her mother thought she already was. "Your mom will understand, you know."

"Eventually she might. I just don't want to disappoint her too much without at least trying it. I'm gonna try – maybe it will switch on once I'm out there or something."

"Maybe," he admitted. "I can't believe we are both going out there with such big question marks hanging over us. We must be insane."

She giggled as she nodded her head. "Definitely. I used to be so sensible before I met you, you know. We'll be fine though - our first semester is just about finding our feet and making sure we're happy out there."

"If I can resist the temptation of a new girl two weeks after arriving in LA, right?" he teased, causing her to roll her eyes.

"Oh shush. Just wait until you're all insecure and I start teasing you about it."

"Hey - you tease me about my truck all the time."

She giggled and looked up at him, feigning innocence. "No I don't."

"You do – that's why you are making us leave three days early because you think we're going to break down twenty times on the way to California."

She gasped – how the hell did he know that? "Maybe I just wanted to spend quality time alone with you..."

He rolled his eyes and shook his head as he leant close to her lips and whispered softly. "Liar." His eyes sparkled with mirth as he looked at her, his whispered accusation causing her stomach to flip like it always did when he spoke to her with that teasing, sensual voice that he only ever used with her. "Kelsi blabbed before she left when she begged me not to get you killed in my 'hunk of junk truck'."

She couldn't disguise her grin then as she fully started to laugh, causing him to chuckle in reply. "I can never lie to you. It's true – your truck is a hunk of junk, but it has character and it managed to take you to California so I will always have a soft spot for it until you replace it, which is hopefully soon."

"I'm keeping that truck until I die – our grandkids will be making fun of that truck if I have my way so anymore comments like that and I'll dump you at the airport and drive cross country myself," he pouted, pulling her closer even as he said it. "Okay – enough teasing, tell me what you're thinking about being in California without Taylor and Chad's insanity being a factor."

"I'm...I don't know, it's just overwhelming. I just...I feel like the last year has went by too quickly and I kinda want to go back and relive it, without all the worrying about us getting separated. I don't know...I'm just really, really going to miss this place."

He didn't say anything as he tightened his grip on her and let her sit for a moment before he spoke softly. "You know that I'll be bringing you back here as often as I can, right? I may even know this hotshot who might consider letting you crash at his house when you come back."

"I'm pretty sure the hotshot's parents might have a thing or two to say about that," she giggled at his faux cockiness. Troy Bolton was a lot of things, but calling himself a hotshot in anything other than jest was not something that she was ever going to have to worry about.

"They'll get over it," he muttered as he kissed her neck. "They're just trying to get their head around the whole thousand mile thing. Once they do they'll love you again."

She didn't say anything in reply. There wasn't really much she could say – she figured things would get better between herself and Troy's parents again, but it was still awkward. She didn't blame them for being upset with her, but there wasn't much she could do about it apart from prove to them that she was worth what Troy was giving up for her, and she intended to prove that so she didn't mind that she was playing a long game here.

"You know, I'm going to miss climbing up here at night – just being able to spend the night with you, with nothing else mattering but the two of us. I know we're not going to be able to do that as often now because we're a bit further apart, but it's temporary."

"I know," she whispered. "We're going to be okay, aren't we?"

"We're going to be fine," he replied softly. "Better than fine."

She smiled as she rubbed her ear against his chest, believing what he was telling her. He had a way of doing that – making her feel better; it was one of his many skills. She watched as the sun completely disappeared and couldn't help but feel the excitement and trepidation actually increase. "I guess we better go – your parents will be annoyed if I kidnap you early."

He shook his head and managed to pull her even closer, so that she was all but sitting on his lap so he could trail her fingers up and down her leg. "Not just now. Let's just stay for a little while longer since we won't be able to do this again. At least not here. I always kinda loved this balcony..."

She smiled against his chest as they lay, the sound of their breathing the only sound around them.

"You know I realised I was in love with you on this balcony," she whispered softly, not knowing why but feeling like she had to tell him. "I mean, I kinda loved you beforehand but it was when I came out here that I realised that what I was feeling was love."

She heard him sigh as he pulled her closer. "You told me you loved me for the first time when you were in Stanford."

She nodded and closed her eyes, the memory of the phone-call still in her mind. "I knew it a long time before that though, but I was scared to say it..."

"When?"

"Does it matter?" she asked, feeling her face flush slightly. It wasn't that she was worried he would make fun of her or anything, but she couldn't help but feel slightly embarrassed that she had come to the conclusion so quickly in their relationship – or friendship as the case had been at the time.

"I'd like to know," he whispered softly as he lifted her head up, his eyes pleading with her. Damn his eyes – he knew he could get her to do anything when he looked at her like that. "Please?"

"The night you came to apologise and ask me to do the call-backs. I could never work out why it had hurt me so much considering we had only been friends for a couple of weeks, and when I saw you standing there even after I had given you an out about being my friend, singing to me, apologising and it just...it clicked into place and it was like a light went on. It took me more than a year to tell you though because I thought, well...guys freak out and it was really, really quick but I couldn't really help the way I felt. There was just something about...I don't even know how to explain it because I know it doesn't make any sense but it was like there was this part of me that hadn't even been alive before I met you. Like...I woke up and I felt like me. Like the me I always wanted to be. I know it doesn't make any sense..."

She risked a look up to see that he was watching her intently, a smile toying at his lips as he leant forward and kissed her softly.

"Who says it doesn't make sense?" he asked as he nudged her forehead. "I don't know the exact moment I realised I was in love with you. It just...I met you and something was there. You started singing on that stage and I thought 'whoa' and while we were talking on that balcony, I couldn't shut up because, in case you haven't noticed, I'm a bit of a nervous babbler and I had never been so nervous in my life! It was like here's this unbelievable girl and I had no idea what the hell to do about it because it had never hit me like that before. You were and are the only girl I have ever seen like that and before I had grasped what the hell was going on with that, you had kinda floored me. There is a reason that the worst moments in my life involve you leaving me," he whispered as he closed his eyes. "That's why you can't ever leave me again, Gabriella. Please."

She wrapped her arms tightly around him, her eyes closed over to prevent her tears from falling. She knew she had hurt him, and although it wasn't intentional and she had hurt as well, she never wanted to cause him any sort of pain. Doing that was the absolute last thing she ever wanted. "I promise, Troy. Never again."

He pulled back and pressed his forehead to hers, their eyes both closed but their faces so close they could feel the other breathe. "So...I'm not leaving you for some blonde theatre girl, and you're not leaving me for some over-sized brained law major...why are we sitting here reminiscing like we're never going to see each other again?"

She giggled and shrugged her shoulders as he opened his eyes, his own wide grin mirroring hers. "Every girl dreams about a handsome prince riding up on his white charger, climbing her balcony and whisking her off into the sunset to a new life so reminiscing about our old life seemed right. And well...you did climb my balcony..."

"I did – joining you in a life of crime as I did so incidentally."

"And you are very, very handsome," she whispered as she leant in and pressed a kiss to both his cheeks and then his lips in between words.

"Thank you..."

"And you're taking me away..."

"Far far away," he added as he trailed his fingers through her hair until he could place his hands on the bare skin of her neck.

"You're taking me far, far away," she agreed with a smirk. "In your sometimes trusty, white hu..."

"Pick-up truck," he cut in before she could continue, seemingly sensing the upcoming insult she was about to direct towards his car. "Baby, don't call it a hunk of junk when you're being all romantic..."

She grinned and nodded. "It's like a modern fairytale."

"Once upon a time, Princess Gabi was up on her balcony waiting on her prince to come and take her to a land far, far away. The prince, being a handsome and dashing sort soon found his beautiful princess and climbed to find her before taking her away with him forever and ever..."

As he finished his story he leant forward and kissed her, his hands gripping her hair, his lips moving so sensually that she could barely think straight never mind wonder what it would have been like if they had been standing. As he pulled back, letting her bottom lip go as he did so, he leant his forehead against hers and smiled. "And they both lived happily ever after."

"I like that ending," she murmured as she lay her head on his shoulder, knowing that he was right. Her insecurities, his fear, all of it didn't really change anything. They didn't follow anyone else's rules so their friends telling them how they should split now instead of delaying the inevitable, or their parent's insistence that it was 'puppy love' that they would soon grow out of and the odds that were stacked against them lasting outside of High School – none of that applied to them. At that moment she had perfect clarity about where their future was heading and all she cared about was that their future was together. When he was with her, she knew she could do anything and she was never going to let that go without a fight.

He kissed her hair again before he made to stand up. As he got to his feet he stretched his hand out for her which she gladly took as he pulled her close to his body. He gave her this strange look which caused her to blink in confusion before he smirked and leant down to her ear, whispering softly against it. "This could be the start, of something new. It feels so right to be here with you..."

She giggled and pulled away so she could see his face, which had a massive grin on it as she reached up to stroke his cheek. "And now looking in your eyes, I feel in my heart...the start of something new."

"You fell in love with me that night," he whispered, as though it was a secret.

"Yes." Her admission was said softly, but firmly, which only caused his smile to widen. It was amazing the affect his smile had on her. She thought she would be immune to it by now, but if anything the acceleration in her chest actually increased over time and she couldn't help but wonder if in a few years her heart might actually stop because he made it race so much by simply looking at her like that.

"You want to know a secret?" she nodded her head in a silent reply to his question as he leant close, his voice never rising above a whisper and if he hadn't been standing so close she would never have heard him. "I'm actually terrified about everything out there, apart from you."

"You'll be amazing, Wildcat," she murmured before pulling back, her face scrunching in displeasure as she thought of something.

"What?"

"I just realised that I'm not supposed to call you Wildcat anymore," she bit down on her lip in frustration at the fact she was losing her favourite nickname for him. "That's going to take some getting used to...hmmm..."

Her muttering meant she missed the adamant shake of his head, and the furrowing of his brow as he looked at her. "Whoa – what do you mean that you're not supposed to call me Wildcat anymore?"

"Well, Chad and Jason said that Arizona is the Wildcats and since we're in college and you guys play them...I mean I can't exactly call you by your rivals nickname..."

"Okay – I'm making a new rule. Neither of us listens to anything any of our friends ever say. They are...there are no words about how bad the advice they give out is." Troy shook his head in sheer frustration. "You still call me Wildcat. I don't care that I've graduated, or that I'm going to Berkley, or that there are a hundred teams with that as their nickname..."

"Yeah but..."

"But nothing." His voice left no room for disagreement. "I like when you call me that. In fact, I love when you call me that," he grinned as he stepped them backwards until she was leaning against the balcony, trapped by his body. "It makes me feel special, and kinda turns me on. I would _hate_ it if you stopped. It's our thing. Screw Arizona."

She couldn't help but giggle within the cage he had trapped her in. "Turns you on? We were having a romantic night and you have to go and lower the tone."

His grin didn't waver as he pressed even closer to her before he ghosted his lips over her jaw towards her ear, causing her to shiver involuntarily. The things that boy could do to her...

"It's entirely your fault. You do things to me, Gabriella Montez."

"Good things?"

"The best things."

She was trying to remember what it was they were talking about as his lips caressed the skin beside her ear and she could only faintly nod. "Whatever you say, Wildcat."

He sighed as he pulled back. "Wanna know another secret? As scared as I am about this move, there is a bigger part of me that wishes we had done this a week ago because I cannot wait until it's just you and me out there with no interference, and no negativity from everyone around us because I know this is going to work out for us."

She looked at him, his expression so earnest and serious that if she hadn't been leaning against the balcony she might have fallen. "I can't wait either."

He took a deep breath and stepped back, grabbing her hand and kissing it before he gave her a warm smile. "So what do you say to getting this show on the road then? We'll head back and get ready for the start of the rest of our lives."

"Okay," she smiled, genuinely excited for the first time. "Let's do this."

He grinned then as he swung over the edge of the balcony onto the tree, holding his hand out for her as she cautiously climbed towards him, silently cursing herself for not stealing the keys. "I'm not going to let you fall," he promised as he held onto her as she gained her balance on the branch. "I'll keep you safe."

She raised an eyebrow as he sat down on the branch, pulling her down with him so she was straddling the branch. He grinned as he nodded his head towards the branch, causing her to look down.

"You carved our initials into my tree?"

"Ummm...no?" He cringed before shooting her a bashful smile. "Okay, you see, what it was is that I was bored and extremely confused at what I wanted with college when you were in Stanford and as I think better in trees I may have ended up here once or ten times to try and work out what I was thinking. I mean you try talking to my dad or Chad about stuff that they don't understand and see how good the advice is and you weren't here and I... You should be pleased – that was before I broke into the school, trashed the basketball decorations and the gym."

She giggled, knowing he wasn't joking while he blushed furiously. "You know it really doesn't count as trashing them when you then went around and tidied up after yourself." She leant over and kissed him before running her fingers over their initials, unable to stop the grin about how they would always be there now. It was imprinted for as long as the tree stood – which could technically be for hundreds of years. "I kinda love that our initials are there forever."

"Even before you called to tell me you weren't coming back, a part of me, a small part, felt like I was losing you and this...this was my way of keeping you forever."

She gave him a small smile before reaching over to caress his cheek. "You always had me forever."

He grinned as he placed a kiss against her palm and nodded. "I know that now but...well, at the time...the tree seemed the best bet. Not anymore though – forever starts here. It's just us."

"Just us," she agreed as she closed her eyes and looked up at the sky and smiled. Suddenly the future, the thing she had been scared of for what seemed like forever, didn't seem so bad. Him and her, together forever – she could live with that.


	2. Crystal Balls and Magic Mirrors

Crystal Balls and Magic Mirrors...

Author's Note – Thank you so much for the reviews of the last chapter, and also thanks to those who put it on story alert and PM'd me. I appreciate all of you taking the time to read this.

I'm glad that you guys liked the characterisation, and like the concept of this as I have tried to keep them as 'in character' as possible so that it at least looks like it could fit into HSM canon as they grow up. This is the second part and again, the italics are from the section it relates to in All The King's Horses but, I promise, it's not necessary to read that to get this. I hope you enjoy and let me know what you think. Thanks again.

Disclaimer – I own nada

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_I would often just watch you while you slept, tracing your features, watching your eyelashes flutter, the way you would breathe, the occasional murmur of my name...it was fascinating for me. You caught me at it more than once, and loved to tease me, but I know you did it too. I don't know how many mornings I woke up to find a strand of my hair wound round your finger, or saw your blue eyes looking down at me._

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The light began to shade through the curtains in the small bedroom, bathing the room in a pale glow. The room was silent for the most part, and the only movement was the fluttering of the breeze from the window against the drapes. Troy Bolton had no idea what time it was, but at this moment in time he didn't really care. He knew he had work later in the day, but that could wait – in fact as far as he was concerned, right at this moment time could stop condemning him to a lifetime of staying in this position in this room and he would welcome it.

Troy sighed and tried to adjust himself quietly as he regretfully pulled back slightly from the warm body that was nestled into his side. He didn't want to move too far away, just far enough so that he could look at her properly. He smiled as she unconsciously reached for him as she felt him adjust and grinned as she seemed content when she found his hand, laced their fingers together and brought it to her lips without opening her eyes or even coming close to consciousness.

It was little things like this that meant that he often woke up before dawn regardless of his plans for the day. It was actually funny how much his life had changed for the better in the last two and a half years because he never thought he would be the guy he was today. His sixteen year old self would mock him mercilessly for being as sappy as he is now, but he didn't really care and he knew for a fact that his seventeen year old self would understand completely. It was amazing how one moment; one second could completely change a person's life. At sixteen all he could see in life was basketball. He barely dated, and the dates he did go one were few and far between and definitely singular. All he concentrated on was passing his classes and practice and life had been simple and easy, and although it was a little dull, and a little empty, he hadn't really noticed. Then one New Year's Eve his mother all but marches him into a kid's party and bang! As loud as any firework he meets the love of his life and suddenly life is...diverse, colourful, interesting and full.

He smiled as he leant over to her ear and whispered. "We're soaring, flying..."

He pulled back and waited and sure enough a smile tugged at her lips as she tightened her grip on his hand and sighed her reply drowsily. "There's not a star in heaven we can't reach..."

He fought back the urge he always got when he did this to kiss her senseless and instead squeezed her hand back before placing it against his lips. She would kill him if she knew that he did this so often, but they had an understanding – he wouldn't mention her tendency of staying awake long after they went to bed so she could watch him, and she in turn would not mention his tendency of getting up early for the same reason. It was just their thing and although they both knew the other one did it, they were still embarrassed about it. No one wants to dwell on the fact that they are completely whipped by another person, even when they know they are.

They had been in California a year together and he could hardly believe it had gone in so quickly. It had been a difficult and eventful year for the both of them yet somehow they had come through it stronger than ever. Being 32.7 miles away had been great in theory, but with never-ending basketball practices, classes, study groups and work, sometimes they went days without seeing each other in the beginning. It had been hard being out there on their own when all they wanted was to be with each other, but they had made it through and after Gabriella had insisted on learning to drive they found a way to maximise their time together during the hectic weeks which involved a cafe happily located fifteen miles from Berkley where the two would meet each day for breakfast, or night for dinner. The stress also seemed to alleviate substantially when the pair of them made some difficult decisions regarding their courses and ended up switching during Christmas vacation their first year. He sighed as he brought his hand down to stroke her wrist tenderly. How had he thought it possible to star in a show without her by his side, or without his friends behind him? Impossible.

"Mmmm, Troy..." she murmured causing him to smile at her tone.

"What is it, babe?" he asked his sleeping girlfriend softly.

"Shhh," she murmured. "It's a surprise..."

"What's a surprise?"

"The tickets," she groaned as her brow furrowed in her sleep. "'sok. I'll find them before the game..."

"Well, where do you think they are?"

"In my book," she muttered. "You never look in there..."

He suppressed his laughter as he stroked her cheek. "I won't look, I promise."

"'k. Love you," she sighed as she cuddled closer to him, falling back into a deeper slumber.

He grinned, the tickets were probably the tickets she had bought for them to go and see the Lakers play. Troy hadn't known about them, only for her to present him the envelope over breakfast with a smile, saying she had got him them as a surprise because she was so proud of how well he had played during the Championships. He had never thought it possible, but that night at the basketball game he had actually managed to fall more in love with her watching her cheer, and laugh, and make faces as they just enjoyed an evening of being together without time constraints, or rushing off, or phone calls. Watching games had always been engrossing for him, and this should have been more so considering he was watching the freaking Lakers live, but he constantly found his attention on his girlfriend – watching her watch the game and, to be honest, it was perhaps the best basketball experience of his life. Every aspect of it – from their flirting, to the game, to the messing around with the old guy behind them who had insisted on loudly bad mouthing the latest young Hollywood superstar and his famous girlfriend for being too affectionate on the floor seats. Chad couldn't believe that she had bought him the tickets, but then couldn't understand how he had been in the stadium and hadn't paid attention to every minuscule detail of the experience. He had paid attention to all the details that had mattered – the way she had dissolved into giggles when he had teased her about the old guy, the way she leant her head on his shoulder when it was half time, the way she had cheered when a team scored, the way she had kissed him and asked him if he was having a good time...

He had no idea why it was running through her head at this moment, but from experience he knew that the most random moments popped into her head at night, like the time she started rhyming off the answers to a math problem at 3am, or when she started reliving an argument with Taylor for saying something about 'first crushes' to when she was trying to decide what food to order at the restaurant. Her brain was far more disorganised at night than it ever would be during her waking hours and he was the only person on the planet who was aware of it.

Once she had settled down he propped himself back up and began playing with her hair again, thinking about what he had been thinking about for the past year. He loved her, more than anything and he knew she loved him as much and it was a given that this was it for him. He had absolutely no inclination to even consider himself with anyone else and he was pretty certain that she was of the same thinking. He knew they weren't your stereotypical teenagers – they got together with the knowledge that if they took that step then they were effectively ending their dating experience. They hadn't even had to discuss it, it was just a given – something about them just clicked with the other and it was just meant to be, simple. You could call it fate, destiny, kismet or whatever the hell else you could think of but it all boiled down to one simple fact and that was that Gabriella Montez was made for Troy Bolton, the same way that Troy Bolton was made for Gabriella Montez. Simple, easy, done.

It didn't even scare him either, which is what so many people had a hard time accepting. How could he want just one girl when he could have so many? He couldn't understand why anyone would want so many when they could have her. Even his parents were trying to encourage him to 'play the field' a little but they didn't get that he had everything he could ever want with Gabriella. She was smart, and beautiful. She could laugh with him and at him and she was his. No one would ever see her the way he saw her – no one would see her turn from shy braniac, to fiery temptress and back again. No one else would feel the way his skin tingled when she placed her lips against it, or the way his heart would race when she smiled at him. No one would understand how amazing it felt just to lay here with her like this, to be able to touch her and hold her, and it would be impossible for anyone to comprehend how right everything felt when she was with him and how wrong everything felt when she wasn't. No one could ever understand it and he felt a little sorry for them, but he wasn't going to dwell on it. He wasn't going to apologise for being happy.

He reached over and brought his lips to her head and inhaled the scent of her shampoo. He was in love with the scent of her hair – it lingered on his pillows, his clothes, his shoulder and he couldn't get enough of it. He didn't want to think of the next few months where they would be back in their own separate apartments closer to their own campus and it was back to twenty minutes here and there. He needed more than that this year. He needed her all the time.

Deciding he couldn't wait any longer he slunk down on the pillows a bit until he was level with her and gently, so gently extracted his hand from her grasp so he could brush his hand down her mostly bare back. As his hand caressed the smooth skin he leant close and pressed his lips against hers softly, once, twice until on the third he felt her kiss back softly. He pulled back slightly and saw her lashes flutter.

"Gabriella," he whispered. "Open those eyes for me, beautiful."

She sighed and attempted to cuddle closer to him and for a second he considered just letting her sleep, but he knew that if he didn't do this now he would never do it. He leant in again and pressed his lips against hers once more, kissing her until he felt her smile against his lips. When he pulled back this time he saw her heavy lids open slowly, and she flashed him a drowsy grin as she looked up at him. "Mmmm, good morning to you too, Wildcat..."

"It is a good morning, isn't it?" he grinned as he leant down to press his lips to hers again, causing her to giggle sleepily as she turned over so she was looking up at him. "A good morning that came after an unbelievable night, during an incredible summer where we got to see each other any time we wanted..."

When he pulled back this time she yawned before smiling as she reached up and ran a hand through his mussed up hair. "It's really unfair how good you look in the morning. It makes it very difficult to think of doing anything but lying here with you all day."

"Maybe we should take that as a sign that we should just stay in bed more," he grinned as he caught her hand and pressed a kiss to her open palm before trailing his lips up to her wrist, which always made her sigh. "Because, believe me, the feeling is entirely mutual..."

She smiled and sat up, pulling the sheet with her to cover herself as she looked at him. It was amazing to him how modest she always was in the morning – he didn't get why she felt self conscious about her body, especially as they had both seen each other in every state of undress many, many times and it didn't seem to matter how many times he told her she was beautiful, her first reaction was always to cover herself.

"What time is it?"

He shrugged as he smirked at her, tugging the sheet lightly, causing her to let out a small squeal as he quickly rolled over the top of her, his arms braced either side of her head. "Too early for modesty."

She rolled her eyes playfully as she looked up at him. "It's always too early for modesty for you, Mr Bolton. If you had your way we would both walk around naked all day."

He gasped dramatically and brought a hand to his heart. "You wound me. You make me sound like a crazy, horny, sex crazed nymphomaniac."

"No, not crazy," she giggled as she reached up and kissed him, quickly flipping them over so she was straddling him and looking down at him. "What am I going to do with you, Wildcat?"

"Anything you want, I am entirely easy and open to anything at this moment in time. Especially if it keeps us in this position," he joked as she rolled her eyes before she leant over and kissed him softly, allowing his hand to trail softly down her body, trying to readjust her body so she was laying against him. She took the hint and moved down slightly until she could rest her head against his shoulder and allowed him to move slightly so she could lie against him, half her body draped over his and his arm around her holding her against him. He sighed and kissed her again, revelling in the feelings flying around their heads about each other.

"I love you," she murmured against his lips, blushing slightly as she said it. It was another thing he never understood – for whatever reason when they were in bed she would always blush when she told him she loved him. It was strange because she could say it over dinner, or after a game, or on the phone okay – yet without fail when they were in bed she would always tinge a slight shade of pink when she uttered it.

"I love you too," he responded as he ran his finger over her flushed cheek. "Always."

Her eyes closed at the contact as she leant next to him and cuddled into him tighter.

"Actually, that's kinda what I woke you for," he continued softly, stroking her hair and her back, skipping over her bra strap and back up again while she drew small symbols on his bare chest.

She lifted her gaze up from his shoulder to look at him. "You okay?"

He smiled softly and nodded, but kept his gaze on hers, trying to get a good read on her face. "I'm great. I just...where do you see yourself, say – five, ten years down the line?"

She sat up slightly, but he kept his arm around her, unwilling to let her leave his embrace fully. "Is this a trick question where I answer honestly and then you freak out and everything goes weird?"

"Unless you're telling me you see yourself married to some other guy then I swear, no freak out will be forthcoming."

She giggled and shook her head as she looked at him. "Like that is something you really need to worry about."

"You never know," he replied as he looked at her. "You could meet this hot, smart, perfect guy and run off, elope and leave me. I would become a drunk, my promising basketball career would be a write off and I would die alone and miserable thinking back to how happy I used to be while you're off having a dozen kids all called Jefferson, Octavius and Brown and names like that while your husband is swimming in his first million like Scrooge McDuck does and..."

"That is never, ever going to happen, Troy," she said as she leant up and kissed him. "And seriously, Scrooge McDuck?"

"Do you have a problem with Scottish Ducks?"

"No...although I am slightly disturbed that my boyfriend has considered the concept of swimming in a room full of money like said Scottish Duck."

Troy laughed as he shook his head. "Fine – your husband may be ridiculously rich – like, I don't know, rich like Ryan and Sharpay and own twenty five resorts around the world and an apartment in Paris. Happy?"

"I don't know – the swimming in money thing was a good selling point," she teased before she shook her head. "I don't care what perks this mythical guy has – he's not my guy, so I'm not interested."

He smiled as he kissed her hair. Deep down he knew that, but he still liked to hear it. "I'm gonna hold you to that for like forever, you do realise that, right?"

"Meh – I suppose I could handle forever with you," she smirked as she reached up to kiss him. "Providing of course that you never bring the name Octavius up as a potential baby name again."

He laughed and shook his head. "I swear – I promise to stick to names that won't get the kids beat up from now on."

"That's all I ask," she giggled as she pressed her lips to his chest. "So that means you don't plan on leaving me for a beautiful, leggy, blonde supermodel once you're rich and famous, right Wildcat?"

"Never," he vowed as he closed his eyes, the mere idea of it feeling wrong to him. "There will never be anyone else but you."

"Good," she whispered as she placed her lips against his throat, causing his heart to race. "I was so lucky to find you."

"We were both lucky. Just think how different it could have been. I could have stayed down in the gym if my mom hadn't made me leave that night, you could have been hiding behind a book...I kinda wonder what would have happened if you would have ended up singing with someone else that night."

"I probably would have fainted," she giggled as she shook her head. "I was feeling rather woozy up there until you started singing and I guess...I kinda knew it would be okay after that."

"I guess it was just one of those things that were supposed to happen. Somebody up there must like us, Ms Montez..." he said as he took her hand and kissed it. "You gotta love fate."

"Fate is kinda good to us," she replied as she put her hand against his cheek. "I wish other people could understand that though."

"I don't need them to understand, I'll just settle for them butting the hell out and stop giving us 'good advice'," he murmured, trying to blot out the memories of the numerous conversations their parents had given them during the summer about 'exploring other things', even going as far as to arrange coincidental dinners with 'family friends' in an effort to encourage them to 'branch out' in their love lives. Apparently they were getting too old for the puppy love stage, so now was a good time to compare and contrast so as not to miss the full college experience which apparently meant it was wrong to be happy with the person you were with and instead meant you had to go out with a different person every week.

He shook his head, refusing to dwell on them and instead focused his attention back on the girl in his arms. She saw his attention return and gave him a small smile which immediately lifted any traces of his foul mood. "So, before the weird tangent I believe I was enquiring about your future plans, Ms Montez. So...five years, where do you see yourself?"

"Hmmm, let me see – in the next five years?" she pondered as if to give it some serious thought, her finger on her chin and a smile tugging at her lips. "Well, bearing in mind that I'm no Nostradamus, and have no access to crystal balls or magic mirrors this isn't 100% set in stone so you are not allowed to mock or make fun of me if none of it happens, agreed?"

He chuckled and nodded, trying to keep his face straight. "Of course – I will make a note of that and leave a margin for error in your plan accordingly."

"Thank you," she smiled as she went back to her pondering, as though it were a decision of grave importance. "Hmmm, well I guess I see me as a teacher – I mean, like a proper teacher grading homework at night and everything while I'm waiting on you to come home. I can kinda see us starting a family kinda early, like not five years early, but maybe seven so it's mid-twenties early because we want to have like three or four kids and I see the pair of us insanely happy wherever we are. I think I'd like for us to travel – like take this insane vacation one summer before we graduate where we hit like ten countries in a month or something or where we throw a dart in a map and go there. I want us to have an adventure before we start in the 'real world'."

He watched as her eyes lit up while she worked through her thoughts. He got the impression that she had given it some thought it the past and that made him feel good because he had definitely given it thought.

"That holiday idea actually sounds really cool – we should definitely do that." She grinned at him and nodded. "What else do you see?"

"Ummm...I think we would still be in contact with Chad and Taylor separately because I just don't see how they are going to get back together after the whole thing that went down with them. Although I bet that Taylor will still be telling me that I've wasted my life by not pursuing law and settling down too early and Chad will still be telling you that you missed out on 'all the hot chicks' in LA," she giggled as she impersonated Chad before continuing. "I bet Kelsi and Ryan will be these big shots that we never see anymore because they are always so busy. Um...apart from that, I don't really care about where we live, or the size of the house, or anything – I...kinda just see...us." She eyed him for a second before continuing. "Should I have edited? I should have edited, I knew that before I started talking but it's just you said you wouldn't freak but I should have realised that that obviously meant you would freak because guys don't want to hear all that. I really need to filter my brai..."

"Move in with me," he said suddenly, cutting off her ramble before it could start.

"What?"

"Move in with me. You wanna know what I see? I see us – I don't know if I end up in basketball, or in physical therapy, or teaching like my dad. I have no idea where we will be living, or whether we will have enough for a house or an apartment. All I know is that I see you and me together. At one point I will ask you to marry me and I hope you will say yes, and we'll be married and we'll be happy because you're it for me. I don't need the next three years to tell me that – I know that now, so...move in with me."

"Troy – I would love to," she said as she sat up a bit higher to look at him. "But you know that your dad will never let you. Your parents already think we should go 'on a break' or something and they...well, they are not happy with how together we still are so they will freak out if we move in together. I don't want to make things any more difficult for you with your mom and dad. I mean things were kinda strained enough when we went there."

"Our parents don't get us, our friends don't get us. They don't get what we are, or what we're going to be. We could take as long a break as they think we should take, but the facts aren't going to change – you're it for me. There is no one else; there will never be anyone else. You and I are forever and midweek breakfasts and phone calls when we have a break from work and classes aren't enough for me – I need to know you'll be here when I come home from basketball practice no matter how late it ends, and I want you to know that I'll be there lying beside you when you wake up, no matter how early you have to leave for class. I want to go to sleep with you every night; I want to wake up with you in my arms every morning." His tone rose as he spoke to her, unable to disguise his desperation for her agreement. He lifted a hand to touch the side of her face. "I want to see you blush when you tell me you love me because for whatever reason it makes you embarrassed when we say it in bed. I want us to lie in on weekends and watch SpongeBob from bed, and take spontaneous showers when we're all hyped up and late night movies that we don't finish until three hours before class. I want your perfume lingering on the furniture and your books littering the table while you not so sneakily move more and more of my shirts to your side of the closet. I don't need a few years to know that this is how it's supposed to be. Please, move in with me."

"I..." she began as she looked at him, and he silently pleaded for her to say yes. "I...I want all that too. So much. I would love to move in with you, Troy."

He froze for a second, looking for a reason as to why she hadn't just said what he hoped she said and in his daze he faintly heard her giggle as she reached up and stroked his face. "Are you still with me, Wildcat?"

"I don't know, did you just say yes or no?"

"It's a yes in every language," she whispered to him, causing him to grin madly as he pushed her down onto the pillows and smashed his lips into hers. The kisses were somewhat sloppy due to their wild smiles, but he didn't care.

Their short make-out session was interrupted as he abruptly sat up on his elbows, whilst still laying over her and looked down. "Okay, so what I was thinking is that it's not fair for you to move here since it's so far away from your school and obviously it would be the same for me so what I was thinking is that once we get up, I'll call in sick to work and we can drive into town and have a look around there for any apartments that are available and work something out."

"Sounds like a plan," she said as she reached up to kiss him.

He returned the kiss before he pulled away again. "Also, I think we should sit down and decide what furniture we're taking. Personally, I prefer your bed but my TV."

"We could put my TV in our bedroom," she suggested, giving him a sultry smile. "It will help when we're watching SpongeBob on Saturday mornings plus I can curl up in our bed, under our sheets in our room and watch your games when you're away from home thinking about you..."

He couldn't contain the groan the thought caused him to omit as he looked at her. "Fucking hell, Gabi – a three letter word like 'our' should not sound as sexy as you make it sound...."

"You just have a one track mind," she giggled as she tried to look innocent; all the while she was walking her fingers up his chest.

"No offence - but we're lying here in bed, practically naked and you're trying to torment me with images that are going to make it very difficult for me to breathe, never mind play basketball. If I didn't have a one track mind in this situation, I would be gay."

"If I was trying to torment you I would say that I could be lying like this in our bed, in our room, under our sheets watching your games, thinking of you...and me...us...like this..." as she spoke she dragged her leg up the outside of his as he couldn't contain the groan the action forced from his lips.

"You're trying to kill me." He gave up trying to resist her as his lips found hers again, kissing, sucking, tasting every piece of her he could reach. He would never be able to touch her enough and he couldn't help the grin form on his lips as he thought of all the opportunities he was going to have to wake up like this in the future. Every morning he would wake up and she would be lying there beside him, her warm body pressed against his, her hair draped over his chest, her walking around their home in his shirt and boxers. He was almost completely lost in the moment before he sprung up from her neck and looked at her breathlessly. "We shouldn't tell our parents right away."

She let out a groan as she opened her eyes to look at him, a mixture of frustration and amusement on her face. "You're_ really_ thinking about our parents now?"

"Nooo," he said slowly, blushing slightly as he realised what he had done. "We can talk about our parents later, let's just rewind the last minute and get back to where we were..."

But the damage had been done as she let out a laugh and shook her head, running her hand through his hair. "I have an idea – how about we get up, get dressed, get breakfast and discuss our new home and then later once we've done all that, we can get back to this? You, Mr Bolton, clearly have your mind elsewhere just now."

"Baby," he whined. "Don't get up. My mind is 100% on this moment, right now. I'll be good now, I promise."

"You're always good, Wildcat," she whispered teasingly, causing him to moan in pain as she gently forced him up and reached down the floor for his shirt that had been discarded and pulled it on as he cursed his stupid brain while she fired him the running pants that were lying on the floor as well. "Come on – I'll make you breakfast."

She waited a second, looking for movement from him, before she crawled over to him, seemingly noticing the pained expression on his face but was equally unaware that the sight of her crawling up him wearing his shirt was doing nothing to help as she brushed his hair out his eyes. "Troy, what's the matter? Are you okay?"

"Yes?"

"Are you lying?"

"Yes," he admitted as he looked at her. God she was amazing – she had no idea what the hell she did to him. It would have been something if it was just physically, but she aroused him on every level and there was nothing he wouldn't do for her, even if at that point in time it was extremely difficult to focus on anything other than the sheer seductiveness of the girl in front of him. God he loved fate.

She eyed him in concern for a second before seemingly realising what the real problem was which caused her to smirk and push his shoulders so he was flat on his back where she proceeded to lean down and kiss him, her tongue dancing across his teasingly as her hands caressed his shoulders. "Do you have any idea how much I love you, Troy Bolton?"

"Um..." he forced out, pleading with his brain to formulate words. "If I lie and say no will you show me?"

She smirked against his lips but shook her head. "I'm planning on showing you every day how much I love you, Troy."

"I know," he smiled. "Hey, you're not blushing..."

"I'm wearing more clothes than you are, for a change," she grinned as she leant close to him again to kiss him. "Something that seems to make a difference. Who knew?"

"Maybe you should take the shirt off and try it," he suggested. "For scientific purposes at least."

She pulled back and he tried to reattach their lips, but she moved up and shook her head, the sexy smirk never leaving her face as she leant down and attached her lips to his throat. "Funnily enough, I'm not interested in science just now..."

That was a lie – she was always interested in science but at this point he wasn't going to put his foot in it again by mentioning that. Killing the mood twice in the space of five minutes would not bode well for her continued agreement about moving in with him. Still though...

"Baby," he groaned as she shimmied down so she was placing kisses along his chest. "Are we...?"

"Uh-huh?" she asked, as she shimmied lower, her hand trailing teasingly down his abdomen to play with the elastic of his boxers, her lips barely leaving his skin as she kissed, nipped and licked a trail right down. His head thudded back on the pillows at the sensation. "Are we what?"

"What...God...I thought..." he began before he looked down to see her grin at him. She was going to be the death of him. "I thought...you...wanted to talk...about the apartment..."

Damn his brain – damn his brain to hell. Why the hell was he talking just now? Why couldn't he just do what any right thinking man would do and stop thinking?

"We could talk about the apartment," she purred, causing his head to drop back again at the mere sound. "But you look uncomfortable, and I don't want that...at all...so...I'm going to help. You can just lay there and think about furniture shopping, and curtains and stuff like that if you want..."

She continued kissing his torso, her hand tormenting him with its faint brushes and caresses.

"Gabi," he forced out as he looked at her. "Get up here."

She shook her head against his abdomen, her teasing giggle tormenting him as she placed a long open mouthed kiss against his navel. This is what he loved – the simple knowledge that he was the only one who ever got to see this side of her personality. This version of her was just his – he was the only one who had ever seen it, the only one who would ever see it and that meant everything to him.

He knew where this was headed and although he had absolutely no complaints about that – he wanted more than that. He wanted all of her. He reached down and grabbed her wrist, pulling it up until she lifted her gaze, her eyes still smoky with intent. He didn't know what he looked like, but if he had to guess he would guess he would look as dazed as she did. He sat up abruptly and wrapped his hands around her waist suddenly, yanking her up, one hand finding the back of her head and holding it in place against his lips and the other making short work of removing his shirt again.

"Now...tell me you love me," he whispered against her lips as he trailed a hand down her chest, causing her to arch against him. "For scientific purposes..."

"I'm not interested in science just now," she repeated to him, allowing him to pin her to the bed.

"Please," he murmured as he leant his forehead against hers. "For me?"

She sighed and brought her hand up to his jaw, holding his face in place as she met his eyes with hers. "I love you, Troy Bolton. More than anything."

Sure enough, at her confession, her cheeks flushed and he felt himself smile at the sight before he rubbed his nose against hers. "I love you too."

Before he could connect their lips again she pulled back with a teasing glint in her eye. "So do I get to decorate our new apartment?"

He groaned as he looked at her. "Baby, don't do this to me..."

She smirked at him as she bit down on her lip, the way that always drove him insane. "Do what to you, Wildcat?"

He closed his eyes at the pain she was inflicting on him. Why the hell was she purring his nickname at him if she didn't want to kill him? "You know what. That...the whole, sex-kitten thing you do that drives me all sorts of crazy."

She couldn't contain her laughter then as she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down to her, kissing him softly.

"I'm sorry, baby," she whispered as she pulled back. "You know, we're going to be able to do this anytime we want to from now on, can you believe it? No more having to meet for breakfast just to be able to see each other every day."

"No more rushed dinners, or cut short study sessions..."

"No more having to steal your shirts every time I come over," she whispered as she reached up to kiss him again. "Because now they will all already be in our closet."

He couldn't help but smile at that. Coming to California seemed to have given her a fresh appreciation of wearing his clothes – in High School she had done it occasionally, but since they came out here she had taken to doing it a whole lot more. She had tried to do it somewhat sneakily and she had been successful with it as well, until he stayed over at her apartment one day and went into her closet to find four of his shirts and one of his jackets hanging there. He didn't mind though – there was a part of him that definitely got a thrill out of thinking about his girl wearing something belonging to him when they weren't together. "So you really said yes so you didn't have to go to the effort to steal my clothes?"

She grinned and nodded. "What's yours is mine and, as we're sharing furniture, and rent, and a bed, clothes are the next logical step. Sadly I don't think you'll fit in any of mine, but I'll let you wear some of the stuff I've acquired in the last couple of years including a rather large warm-up jacket..."

"You're too kind," he rolled his eyes playfully, causing her to giggle. "Why is this moving in thing a good idea again?"

She reached up and tugged his hair gently, her face becoming more serious as she met his eyes. "Because I can't think of a better way to bookend my day than being with you."

"Me neither," he whispered as he stroked her face, all teasing forgotten, all sexual frustration left at the back of his mind for that moment. In that moment it was just them – the two of them, him looking into her eyes and her looking into his. "God, I love you. We're going to be so insanely happy this year that Disney characters are going to be envious of us."

"And they both lived happily ever after, right?" she smiled.

"Exactly. Once upon a time a dashingly, handsome prince disguised as a basketball player kissed the most beautiful princess in all the land and woke her up. After he had charmed her way into her good books by failing to mention that he had been talking to her while she slept, she took pity on the poor guy and agreed to move into his palace away from the annoying basketball playing dwarves, interfering magical drama kids, the sparkly Ice Queen and the disapproving parents because really, 32.7 miles is way too far away. They laughed, and joked before they had outrageously hot sex for the best part of the day before they went and found their new abode and then they all lived happily ever. The end."

"Nice story – not sure they will be making a film about it though," she teased as she reached up and kissed him. "At least not one for kids."

"I could make an edit, but I don't want to compromise my vision of the project," he murmured against her lips as his hand trailed up her side slowly.

"I like your vision."

He grinned as he leant down and pressed his lips against hers. "Good – because your input is very, very important to the finished product. But shh – no more talking now."

Her only response was a laugh as she pulled him closer to her.

His last coherent thought was that this was how it was supposed to be with them, and how he finally felt like his future was starting to take shape. Basketball, college, California could all change – the only constant he needed was the girl he was holding right now and he knew he had her, and one day he would have her forever but at the moment the fact that they would share a bed, rent and even clothes, and that he would be there when she left for class, and she would be there when he returned from practice was enough. The next chapter of their fairytale started here – and it just kept getting better.


	3. Fairytale Karma

Fairytale Karma

Author's Notes - thank you so much for the response to the last one. I'm glad so many of you liked it - it means a lot that so many of you are enjoying this. Again, as per - italics are from corresponding section of ATKH and again, not necessary to read that to get this. I hope you enjoy.

* * *

_Every day the girl and the boy fell deeper in love with each other and every day just didn't seem long enough for them so one day the boy fell to his knee, pulled out the most beautiful ring in the entire world and asked the girl to be his forever and she said yes.  
_

* * *

Troy Bolton rarely got nervous – he would sometimes get apprehensive and jittery but numerous basketball games and the occasional musical performance had all but cured him of the nervous butterflies that usually made people want to throw up. He had successfully starred in stage performances in front of a thousand people, and made the last minute game winning shot in a dozen basketball games and although he had a healthy fear in such instances, only one thing could ever make his palms sweat and heart race in pure terror due to nerves.

Gabriella Montez.

She was an oddity due to the extreme reactions she evoked in him. On one hand she could look at him and he would know he could do anything, that no task, no performance, no shot was beyond his capabilities and on the other hand, she was the only person on the planet that could make him so nervous that he wanted to run and hide. He didn't quite understand it as he knew that he would have to really, really screw up for her to run off and leave him, but still…he couldn't help it.

Which was why he was sitting in his truck, staring across a college campus that wasn't his own, trying to work up the courage to get out the car and go and wait for his girl to come out of class and do what he had to do. Chad had tried to tell him that he could put it off and that there was no reason to tie himself down so early, especially as it was clearly starting to stress him out. Troy had no idea why he had even tried to speak to Chad about this - the man was currently in an acquaintances' with benefits relationship with Sharpay Evans of all people and he was notoriously bad at relationship advice. He was also the reason why he and Gabriella had enforced the 'never listen to a friend's advice' rule before they moved to California, so Troy was still trying to work out why he had wasted so much time talking about this situation with his best friend. It hadn't calmed him, in fact it had made him more nervous as Chad seemed to delight in highlighting every potential flaw in the plan.

The perfect plan that he had spent weeks and months putting into action.

He had thought he had it planned out – he didn't think there was anything that could possibly go wrong, but clearly someone out there hated him. The plan was designed to be simple, romantic and fool proof and the end result would be Gabriella Montez agreeing to marry him and them both going off and living happily ever after. Simple, easy and uncomplicated. Simplicity and uncomplicated hadn't really existed in Troy's life the last few years though, so why should he have expected this to be any different? Sure enough, with ten days to go before Valentine's day, his perfect, fool-proof, perfect plan had disintegrated into a giant puff of basketball coloured smoke.

Troy loved basketball – apart from his girlfriend, family and friends, there wasn't anything in the world that he loved more than it. He was the best player in his college team and there was already talk that if he chose to pursue basketball outside of college, he could make a decent career for himself. He was never going to be a star, but there aren't many 5'11" stars in the NBA, but he was told that if he continued to improve there was always the potential to do something for some professional team. He worked hard at his sport, and gave it as much as he could and at no point did he ever regret it, until a team meeting had been called ten days earlier telling the team that there was a scheduling issue with his game, which was supposed be played at 5pm on February 14th, and as a result the game was now being played at 7.30pm just in time to be televised. Apparently, Valentine's Day and marriage proposals were not considered when scheduling occurred and at least ten guys in the team had groaned when they heard about the new game time as they all had envisioned telling their girlfriends that, actually, they were spending Valentine's Day watching basketball instead of having dinner.

Troy at least knew that Gabriella would understand that aspect, but his over-whelming disappointment came with the knowledge that his perfect, elaborate, romantic plan was ruined and he had spent more than a week trying to hide his frustration at that fact, which, sadly for him had clearly been picked up by Gabriella who seemed to have an uncanny ability at picking him up on his bullshit.

She had tried her best to be patient and understanding with him, trying to coax him out of his funk, but as much as he wanted to, he just couldn't help but be disappointed in the fact that he was so close to getting something that he was beginning to think he needed, never mind wanted, only for fate to conspire against him. He needed her to marry him - want had been and gone and was so far behind that it was a long forgotten thing, leaving him with the fundamental belief that her agreeing to marry him was an absolute necessity for him.

When she'd asked him what was wrong, he had planned on lying, but he knew that she would pick up on it, and regardless, it was not something that he wanted to do to her. He just couldn't exactly come out and tell her that he was pissed that his plans involving her had been ruined so he settled for a half-truth about being nervous about the game knowing that she would probably see right through him, but that she would be too kind to make a massive issue out of it. Her understanding and tolerance of his occasionally funny moods was just one of the reasons that he managed to fall even harder for her in the year and a half they had lived together.

Moving in with her had been the best decision he had made in his life - up until that poin the had naively believed that he knew everything about her, yet having her around him all the time had unveiled many aspects of her to him that no one else knew about. Her tendency to dance around the kitchen singing Motown songs when she cooked breakfast at the weekend came as a slight shock to him at first as she had pretty much always preferred more modern wide-ranging music normally, but sure enough, every Saturday at 11am she could be found dancing around, wearing his shirt, singing lines from The Supremes, Marvin Gaye and The Temptations as she twirled from the sink to the stove and back again.

Another thing he hadn't seen coming was her tendency to wear character underwear pretty much every day. He had tried not to point it out but, being a guy he couldn't quite help but mention it when she was getting changed and he noticed her Count Von Count panties were on. She had giggled and shrugged, telling him that she had underwear for date nights and ones for every day and she always used to change when he came over, just in case but, as they were now living together, the everyday norm would generally involve Sesame Street, Peanuts and Sponge Bob as opposed to silk and lace unless he gave her prior warning that they had something planned. He didn't actually have any problems with the 'everyday norm' to be honest - there was something oddly alluring in the fact that his girlfriend was such a goofball underneath it all and he did get a lot of mileage out of teasing her about that little fact.

She actually had lots of little quirks that he hadn't known about despite spending so much time with her in the past, and he revelled in the prospect of finding them in the first few months. Putting the milk in the bowl and then topping it up with cereal was strange, doing yoga on the wii while on the phone to Kelsi or Taylor was odd and her collection of books that's only purpose was to make her cry was baffling to him, but despite the fact that he rarely understood any of these hidden quirks, he loved the fact that even after all this time, she could still surprise him.

The 'moving in escapade' as his parents had dubbed it, was supposed to have finished them off as a couple. Once they were living under each other's feet, once their 'freedom' was curbed they were both supposed to run off kicking and screaming but it had not turned out like that. They had actually taken to it pretty quickly – sure there had been some teething issues (TV watching schedule, whose turn it was to restock the refrigerator, whether it was necessary to study while Greenday blared out from the stereo, whose job it was to clean the bathroom, and the stove...) but those were soon rectified. Gabriella was nothing if not a diplomat and they quickly found a system that worked. CSI could be watched providing the same courtesy was extended to Grey's Anatomy. Shopping and cleaning got done on rota depending on who was less busy while cooking was, for the most part and purely for health and safety reasons, handled by Gabriella, although Troy did attempt to cook at least a couple of times a week - even if his meals consisted of Mac & cheese or salad - effort was everything in their home.

Apart from one time when they had had a proper argument there had been no screaming fights, or awkwardness, or storming out – it had been perfect and everything that he had hoped for when he had asked her to move in with him over a year ago. Why then was he going to upset the apple-cart? They could be very happy like this for the next sixty years, right?

The thing was though...as happy as he was, and as content as he was with his life, there was one small, nagging little thing that kept eking into his thoughts - thoughts like 'wouldn't it be even better if she was officially yours?' It was borderline pathetic how his thoughts had formed the past six months – he would find himself thinking about their future, and then, by accident he would start to think about how nice 'Gabriella Bolton' sounded. He would find himself spending too long gazing in jewellery store windows looking at rings and picturing how much better everything would be if one of those rings magically appeared on her ring finger, how he got this almost animalistic surge of possessiveness when she would go to his games and wear his name on her back, and how cool it would be to introduce himself to the guys who checked her out and instead of saying 'hi, I'm her boyfriend, Troy' saying 'hi, I'm Troy – Gabriella's husband, so how about you back the hell up?'

Those thoughts, those desires were why he was gripping his steering wheel, staring fixedly at his target and hyper aware of the presence of the box in his pocket. He needed her to agree to marry him, and he couldn't wait any longer. His plan had been perfect, and he was not waiting any longer to get his answer so…

He nodded his head determinedly as he opened his door, grabbing the flower he had placed on the seat before he marched over to his normal tree and looked at his watch, checking the time. He knew he could back out, he knew he could take a week and re-plan his perfect evening, but he also knew that he would go insane before that so he had no choice.

He took a deep breath before he shot one look at his truck, and the building his girlfriend was in, trying to decide whether or not to back down. "Come on Bolton - man up," he muttered to himself as he tried to focus his thoughts enough. "It's just the rest of your life that you're messing with…"

His mini pep-talk doing the job, he took one last longing look towards his truck before hoisting himself up onto the low lying branch that led to his usual perch, ignoring the fact that he had a game in less than seven hours, or that his coach would personally kill him if he knew he was climbing a tree, and even managing to ignore the fact that if he had his way the initials carved in this tree and the tree in Albuquerque would need changed. All that mattered at that exact moment was the seconds that were counting down until his girlfriend appeared in front of him again. He was ready, he was focused and he was going to do what he had planned to do today, fancy dinner and perfect plan or not. He was not spending one more day without knowing. If she said no, then he would just ask her again one day, but if she said yes…if she said yes he knew it would be the best thing that would ever happen to him.

* * *

Gabriella walked out of the Stanford library at 1.30 on Valentine's Day, trying to work out if it was worth her while to pick up a late lunch for Troy before heading home or not. She knew something was bothering him, and contrary to his insistence, she doubted that it was purely the fact that they were going to miss going out for Valentine's day. Kelsi had assured her that it was probably nothing, whereas Taylor, coming off a bad break-up, had tended to take a more cynical viewpoint on things and threw out everything from drugs to affairs, to boredom. Needless to say, Gabriella was tending to favour Kelsi's more balanced advice slightly more.

She figured he was torturing himself over having to cancel their plans, which she couldn't really understand. She had tried to make him see how proud she was of him, and how she didn't mind spending the night in a gym instead of a restaurant or hotel but it all seemed to flit through his brain as he moped. She had wanted him to know that she didn't need Valentine's Day to know that he loved her, and she didn't need pretty much anything else apart from him to make her happy. To her, he was definitely embracing his inner drama queen persona a little - it was one day afterall, and it wasn't like he was ditching her for something that wasn't important. It was a televised game - sometimes she thought that she was more excited about it for him than he was. That was Troy all over though and although she loved that about him, she still wished he would just cut loose and enjoy this - he had earned it and she just wanted him to be as proud of himself as she was. She couldn't help but blame herself slightly - the summer between junior and senior year had seen him lose his priorities a little as he chased success and she hadn't handled it well when she was pushed to the side, so perhaps that was a factor now. She was far more secure in herself now though and she hoped that he knew that because as far as she was concerned he was definitely worrying too much, but she knew enough about Troy to know that pushing him was not the way to get him to respond. He would come around in his own time and when he came around he would general do the right thing, so she wasn't worried.

"You know, one of these days you are going to be concentrating so hard on your thoughtsvthat you're going to fall over your own feet."

She jumped slightly at the familiar voice and spun around, but hearing the low chuckle she stopped and felt a wide grin come to her face in realisation. Of course, where else would he be? "You know, you definitely have an unhealthy obsession with trees, Wildcat."

"Oh come on, you had to have seen this coming. You are supposed to be a genius and all, Ms Montez and I have only dropped out of this tree to see you, oh...seventy times in the last three years," he laughed as he jumped down, landing easily beside her, his face relaxed, his eyes glinting and looking suspiciously like he was up to something. "You know, I have plans to make it at least a hundred before we graduate, right?"

"You might not make it to graduation if your coach finds out you were tree-climbing before a big game," she whispered as she stepped closer to him. "I doubt he would appreciate the romance of the gesture."

"But you do appreciate the romance," he replied softly as he ran a finger over her lips before he stepped back and reached around his back and presented her with a flower. "And that's all I care about."

"Thank you." She brought her nose down to the flower and grinned at the sweet fragrance. "It's beautiful, Troy – thank you."

He shrugged as he reached over and took the flower from her again, before he took it and put it in her hair, his hand trailing down the side of her face as he finished before he placed a soft kiss on her lips. "You really are beyond beautiful, you do realise that, right?"

She took a deep breath and leant into his embrace, her heart still racing at the proximity even after all this time. "Troy..." she mumbled, trying to hide her blush from him.

"I'm not saying anything that isn't true," he insisted. "Happy Valentine's Day, baby."

"Happy Valentine's to you too," she smiled as she reached up and kissed his lips.

"So..." he began after a moment as he pulled back, not letting go of her hand as he did so though. "As you know, I had big plans for today...like, insanely good plans that would top just about anything that could ever be done for Valentine's day but with the game getting moved I had to put them on ice."

"Troy, I told you – I don't mind..."

He cut her off as he spun her around and brought her hand to his lips before he led her towards the fountain. "Now...I pouted a little, which you may have noticed but then I got to thinking that actually, you were right. As long as we were together then the day wouldn't be a total bust, and the main thing I wanted to do today I could still do. See, I had this all down perfect but it would have been forced and...well, not us so...what better thing to do than to drop out a tree, right?"

She giggled and nodded. "Right."

"So...here's the thing," he began slowly as he took a deep breath and sat down on the edge of the fountain beside her, his hand slowly caressing hers. "Do you remember the argument we had like a year and a half ago? I stormed out and you threatened to give my Lakers basketball to the little kid next door because I was being a jackass?"

"I did give the basketball to the kid next door," she whispered. "Then like ten minutes later I felt guilty and bought it back off him for a hundred dollars."

His eyes widened as he looked at her. "Babe, I could have replaced it for fifty bucks – he totally fleeced you."

She shrugged and didn't bother to explain that it wasn't the fact that the basketball was replaceable, it was the fact that she had given it away in the first place. "I felt awful. I would have paid more to get it back."

He shook his head and leant over and kissed her. "I had been a jackass so losing the basketball was the least I was expecting – but," he pressed his lips to her ear and whispered, his breath tickling her skin. "Thank you for getting it back anyway."

"You're welcome. Why are we talking about that anyway?" The fact that he brought up the one serious argument they had suddenly registered with her - that was not good Valentine's Day conversation. It had been ridiculous as well – he came home after a practice and had ran into some of the people she had brought over for a study group on the way out of their apartment. His practice hadn't went well and his coach and dad were teaming up to pressure him to make some decisions he wasn't ready to make, and she was stressing after arguing with her mom over something silly and they just exploded, unfortunately they exploded against each other. He was apparently annoyed that she had studied with a guy who had apparently blatantly hit on her at one point, whereas she was annoyed that he would even consider any other guy a threat. The whole thing had escalated until he had stormed out and she had thrown the nearest object, namely his Lakers basketball, at his retreating figure telling him that she didn't want to see him again until he stopped being a paranoid jackass.

The whole 'event' had lasted about two hours where she had successfully retrieved the basketball from the neighbours child and waited on him and he slunk in the door two hours later with flowers and an apology and that had pretty much been it. "You know – Valentine's day is supposed to be happy memories and the like. Not arguments."

He laughed and looked down before he took a deep breath. "I do actually have a point, you know. We're not natural – we're the freaks of the dating world. We were supposed to get bored, or curious, or sick of each other once we got out here. I was supposed to have driven you crazy and you were supposed to have driven me insane after we moved in together, and none of that happened. We had one argument that could even be classed as an argument and even that was over in two hours. We're freaks. We're one step from being captured and put in a science lab and studied due to our freakiness."

"Okaaay..." she began slowly, still failing to grasp the point of the conversation but not wanting to point out that he wasn't making any sense. He did have a tendency to ramble when he got nervous and she had no doubt that he was nervous about the game tonight but, as understanding as she was about it, she still had absolutely no idea what on earth he was trying to say.

"Okay, that...that's not exactly how I wanted to go about this," he said in exasperation as he rubbed the back of his neck before standing and spinning around. "Um...okay, here's the thing...you and I...we're..."

She smiled softly as she stood, thinking that she should stop him because he was starting to get agitated. She had barely moved a step towards him before his eyes widened in horror and he shook his head at her. "No, you have to sit there and wait – I have this all...just, sit and listen and I promise I will make a point worth listening to at one point. You just have to sit right there and stay there."

"Troy – whatever it is, why don't we leave it until later? We can talk later and if you're nervous about your game we can go do something to loosen you up so you're nice and relaxed. You know, I may have in my possession the new Guitar Hero game that I was going to keep as a surprise until after your game but this seems like an emergency..."

"You got the new Guitar Hero for me?"

"Well, I have other things for you but...yeah," she shrugged, biting her lip coyly. "Nothing says 'I Love You' like buying your boyfriend a video game apparently," she smiled as she looked at him. "Maybe it would help you relax before your game because I don't think I've ever seen you look so nervous, even last year at the Sweet Sixteen."

"Trust me, this is nothing like this…"

"Troy - you guys will win tonight. You've beaten them the last three times, and you have been amazing in every game. You will do great tonight so please, don't be nervous about a game like this. Save your nerves for three weeks when you guys go to Michigan," she gave him a small smile, trying to let him know that she would be there regardless, and she knew he could do it.

"The game?" he gave a laugh and shook his head. "I wish I was this nervous about a game..."

"I don't...I don't get it," she admitted in confusion. If he wasn't nervous for the game, if that wasn't what was causing his odd behaviour, then she was stumped "If you're not nervous for the game then what...?"

"Okay, the thing is..." he came over and sat down beside her again, his hand running through his hair as he seemed to be trying to regulate his breathing. "Normal people don't do what we did – they sleep around, they look for better fits and..." he stopped having seen her horrified face and cringing as he quickly continued. "Which is something that I've never even thought about, ever, I swear. It isn't even a consideration that I have...considered, at all. Like even the thought of someone else is just wrong and I... I just...God this worked much better in my head...right, here's the thing..."

She tried to not interrupt him, even though he was going round in circles but...she was didn't want him working himself up over something. It was actually a little disorientating for her to see him so nervous – he was usually the one who stayed calmer, who kept calm so for the roles to be reversed over something as innocuous as a basketball game was a little jarring. "Troy...relax, please. You can tell me anything, okay? I don't care if it sounds stupid or rambly, or if it sounds better in your head – just talk and I'll work it out, okay?"

"Okay..." he said as he stood again. "I'm just going to say it and you can't say anything until I'm finished. Um...okay. You see I…and you…and…" he growled as he tugged a hand roughly through his hair. "Okay - Once upon a time there was this guy who met this girl and fell insanely in love with her. They moved far, far away to be together and they were pretty close to their happily ever after, but the guy needed something else to be really, really happy. He needed the girl to agree to be his forever. He needed her to say yes about loving him for forever."

Gabriella's eyes widened as he took a deep breath and dropped to one knee in front of her and reached for her hand again. "_I_ need you to be mine forever. I get that we're young, I get that the odds are against us, I even get that this is the worst proposal in the history of the known universe but I had big plans which involved a fancy restaurant and mood music and a candle-light dance on the balcony as the sea lapped against the shore which would have been perfect, but I'm greedy and I can't wait any longer because it has been driving me insane for weeks, months and I can't wait any longer. I love you, Gabriella – it's only ever going to be you."

Her heart was racing so quickly in her chest that she was sure everyone around them could hear her. She was almost scared to breathe in case she woke up from what must have been the most wonderful dream.

"Say that you'll be mine forever," he murmured as he pulled out a box and opened it to reveal a beautiful solitaire diamond ring. "Marry me."

She took a deep breath as she looked at him, before she looked down at the ring. This couldn't be happening to her, could it? There was no way that something so perfect, something she had dreamed about could be happening to her already, surely? She tried to discreetly pinch her thigh with her free hand just in case she was still sleeping, but as she locked her eyes on his mesmerising blue that were begging her to put him out of his misery, she knew that this was real. She really was sitting on the fountain, Troy really was kneeling in front of her and he really was asking her to marry him. She felt the tears stream from her eyes as she launched herself at him, wrapping her arms tightly round his neck as she proceeded to press small, feather light butterfly kisses all over his face as he fell back after losing his balance at the sudden impact. As he hit the ground he somehow managed to get his hands up to hold her head still as he pressed his lips to hers, the kiss deepening as she completely forgot that, in fact, they were laying on the grass in the middle of her campus surrounded by lunching students and faculty. None of that mattered to her though – all that mattered was that in that second, everything she had ever dreamed about was coming true.

Troy pulled back eventually and cradled her head in his hands, his grin wide as he used his thumbs to wipe her tears. "That was either a yes or one hell of a way to lessen the pain of a rejection."

"Like I would ever say no to you," she sniffed as she ran her hand down his chest and lay it against his heart. "Yes – a million times yes. I love you more than anything – I want nothing more than to be yours forever. Yes, I'll marry you. Yes, I'll love you forever. Just...whatever way you want to ask it, just yes...yes."

His eyes closed in bliss as he took a deep breath and lay his head fully against the grass. "God, I knew if you said yes it would be the best day of my life, but it should be illegal to be as deliriously happy as I am just now. How the hell am I going to go play basketball tonight when all I want to do is spend the time with my beautiful fiancée?"

She giggled as she adjusted herself so she was sitting beside him instead of on him. "You know, I don't think you can call me your fiancée until you actually put the ring on my finger."

"Holy shit - the ring!" his eyes snapped open as he began groping around the grass for the box he had dropped instinctively when she had launched herself at him, only relaxing when she handed it to him with a smile. "Okay – before I put this on you, I should point out that it's not...ultra extravagant or...impressive but, if you hate it then I promise I will upgrade it at one point..."

She pouted at him as she pulled her hand back, causing him to look at her in confusion. "What?"

"If you put that on me, you better not even think about replacing it. As soon as it's on my hand it's the whole prying from my cold, dead fingers thing to get it off so..."

He looked at the ring and then at her and then back to the ring. "Will you still get engaged to me today if I don't give you this ring?"

She shook her head, and tried to keep her face straight as she made a show of folding her hand against her chest. "Nope."

"But...what if I light up the game tonight, and some big shot team wants to sign me a year early and I get an insane signing bonus and..."

She rolled her eyes as she leant over to him, trailing her lips up his jaw until she reached his ear where she whispered. "I don't care about money or shiny things, Wildcat. I love you and I want to marry you but I'm only going to do that if you give me that ring."

That was all it took as he reached up with one hand and pulled her face round to meet his lips before the hand slid down and clasped her left hand. He pulled back from the kiss and grabbed the ring out the box before sliding it on her finger. She saw his breath catch as he looked at it, and she couldn't help but feel her eyes flood with tears again as she saw the pure joy that he radiated. She wondered if anyone looking at her would be able to see how happy she was just by looking at her like that. "It's perfect. Thank you."

"Wow – we're engaged," he whispered as he looked up at her. "We should totally get married after we finish up next year. Our trip to Europe can be our Honeymoon and it means there is zero percent chance of anyone tagging along like they were threatening to do. Either that or we can just drive off like now – Vegas is like four hours in the car away..."

"Or two days in your truck, right..." she teased, causing him to narrow his eyes playfully.

"I'm choosing to ignore the unprovoked attack on my manhood by my new fiancée..."

She couldn't stop her giggles as she leant over and hugged him. "You're far too manly and suave to get upset at some teasing of an inanimate, totally unrelated object, Troy."

"I only put up with it because I seem to have an unhealthy attachment to you, Ms Fiancée," he joked before he grinned again. "Man that is never going to get old!"

"Never," she agreed as she reluctantly got to her feet. She wanted nothing more than to stay there with him all day, but she knew the game tonight was important and there was no way she was going to make him miss it. "Come on, Wildcat. Time to head home."

He groaned as he let her pull him to his feet. "Why do I have to play tonight?"

She paused and turned round, letting him drape his arms round her waist as he pulled her hips close to his. "Because you are going to go out there and be amazing and then, once you're done – we're going to go home and spend a night just...just us, no team, no cameras, nothing...and then I'm going to listen to you try and explain to your parents how you could just throw your life away by getting engaged so early."

"Oh yeah, that's top of my priorities for tomorrow – no, wait, actually – I'm already scheduled for a full day in a permanent state of semi-undress in and out of bed with my beautiful fiancée, so I guess the latest Bolton Family 'but Troy you're too young to...' lecture will have to wait a couple of days."

"Okay. I guess I can live with that," she grinned as she nodded. She didn't think she would ever be able to get that smile off her face. "Thank you, Troy."

He looked down at her and shook his head in confusion as he brought his hand up to brush some hair behind her ear. "For what?"

"Everything," she whispered. "For not giving up on me, for moving out here, for making me so happy, for wanting me forever...just, thank you."

"You never need to thank me," he replied softly, dropping his head to lean against hers. "The fact that you're here with me...that's all that I'll ever need."

He kissed her softly as he entwined their hands. "Come on – I'll be a nice future husband and splash out on a celebratory Subway meal on our way home so we have time to get ready for tonight. Just to give you adequate warning, I fully intend to show you off tonight so..."

"Show me off?"

"Uh-huh," he grinned as he planted a kiss on her hair. "Everything is about you tonight." She cuddled closer to his side as they walked before he stopped and looked at her. "You happy?"

She lifted her gaze to meet his, and saw her wide smile mirrored on his face. "If I were any happier I worry that I would pass out," she whispered as she stepped closer. "This...it's everything I ever dreamed about, Troy."

"Me too. I mean I did have the most amazing proposal planned out," he said as he rubbed his neck. "It would have been perfect…you would have loved it, but I couldn't wait."

"You dropped out of a tree, gave me flowers, called me beautiful and then proposed to me using a fairytale – that was perfect. Nothing would have topped that," she assured him.

"Fairytales are kinda our thing," he winked at her. "I could have sung, but as I couldn't really form words, remembering song lyrics was going to be difficult. Plus, in fairytales the princess never rejects the Prince's advances, so I was hoping for some good karma..."

"In real life I never reject your advances either," she grinned as she leant up and kissed his jaw. "You could have proposed in the middle of the mall and I would have still said yes, just so you know."

"You know, if you had even given me a hint of that then I wouldn't have been a nervous wreck for the last week," he teased as he locked his arms around her. "Instead I kept imaging all these scenarios that resulted in bad things happening."

She couldn't help but laugh as she shook her head. "You never had anything to worry about."

He smirked as he leant down and kissed her, his lips soft against hers before he pulled back. "You know, I think I enjoy kissing you even more now that you're going to marry me..."

She smiled against his lips, giggling at the frustrated look on his face as she pulled back. "Come on, Mr Fiancé – you promised me Subway, save your sweet-talking until after your game where we can do it properly."

"Fine," he sulked as he grabbed her hand, brought it to his lips and kissed it. "I'm holding you to that."

Before they could even walk much further he had stopped them again.

"What?"

"Just...I love you."

"I love you too." She squeezed his hand and let him pull her into his body.

"I swear I'm going to make you so happy," he promised by whispering in her ear. Before she could even say anything, he had kissed her cheek and pulled back, his earnest expression fading as he began pulling her along again. "Come on then, I'm starving and we have a busy day ahead of us from this moment so eating is good."

She could only follow him as he guided her across campus, the smile still plastered on each of their faces. She could only smile as she saw girls walking around carrying flowers and bears as she looked down at the diamond glistening on her finger and felt herself float all over again. She knew there wasn't a girl who was happier than she was at that moment, and catching the mirroring grin on his face as he kept trying to sneak discreet glances down at her left hand as they walked, she knew that there wasn't a guy who was happier than him. It was like everything was leading up to this conclusion, like this was meant to happen. Who would have thought that one night in Colorado just over for years earlier would have led to this? Would have led to forever? Fate was definitely a strange thing.

She couldn't stop the giggle as she jogged a little to keep up with his stride, causing him to shoot her a shy, apologetic smile as he slowed down. Yeah, fate was strange, but she was never going to doubt it after all this. On the most romantic day of the year she was made the happiest woman on the planet – who could argue with that?


	4. A Shift In The Tale

Author's Note - Sorry for the delay but I have been insanely busy with work and this part has proven to be…difficult to write. I hope you all enjoy this. As always - italics relate to the corresponding part in ATKH's - if you have read that then you probably have an idea how this chapter ends, and if you haven't read it then I'm sorry in advance if you don't see it coming.

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_We had an amazing night and we had somehow ended up in front of the same guy who continued to heckle the same young celebrity couple who were sat on the same floor seats – the only difference is that this time, I couldn't tell you what was happening on the floor. This time I was utterly locked on you and although I cheered, and clapped, and smiled when everyone else did – I don't think I saw more than one basket going in. It was like that night we first slept together – I couldn't take my eyes off you and although I should have been watching the game, I just couldn't stop watching you._

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When Troy Bolton had gone to California there were some things that he wasn't really expecting to happen - he wasn't expecting to move in with his girlfriend after a year and he wasn't expecting to be engaged after three. Both those events were at least a little predictable though - it had only been the speed at which they had happened that had surprised him, nothing else. What he hadn't seen coming was for Lakers basketball to become Gabriella Montez's favourite date location.

It had started innocently enough - she had surprised him with tickets in their first year thus cementing her status as the world's most awesome girlfriend, and from pretty much that moment his love of the sport had went to a whole new level.

The whole experience of watching a game with her was…beyond words. She would laugh, and cheer, and groan and hug him when things went well or went badly and she would indulge him as he took part in his little silent war with Howard, the retired cop who was sat behind them who liked to do his own commentary on the game, and the oblivious young couple on the floor seats who Troy was perversely determined to out-perform in the PDA stakes. He couldn't help it - he sometimes just wanted to show her off, especially if they were in a public arena. He figured he was entitled to be a little smug on occasion - his life was everything he could ever dream it could be and he was happy, so why shouldn't he enjoy it?

Tonight though? Tonight was different - tonight, introductory kiss on the court before heading to their seats aside, there was nothing competitive about the way he kissed her. Tonight…tonight he could barely tell you the final score of the game. The mutterings of protest from Howard were all but ignored, he couldn't tell you whether the superstar couple had been successful in their not so subtle quest to move onto the one seat and he had no real recollection of the fact that they ended up on the stadium Kiss-Cam other than the fact that he had grinned like a lunatic afterwards.

He had been transfixed with her many times in the past obviously, but there was something almost ethereal about her tonight. Her gaze had rarely left him, and there was always a small smile tracing her lips and he wondered what had got into her, because whatever it was seemed to be catching and it seemed to have gotten into him as well.

He held his fiancée's swinging hand as she giggled at him while he spun her under his arm in a one armed pirouette, giggling as she twirled into his body, her arms wrapping around his neck as she bounced up and pressed her lips to his jaw before she spun back out again.

"So, tell me, Wildcat - have you had a good night so far?"

"Hmm," he pretended to ponder as he ignored the looks of the people walking around them as he pulled her close to him again, one hand securing her waist in place as he did so while the other locked with hers in a dance hold. "Let me think - basketball game with the love of my life, followed by an awesome dinner and now I am dancing with my beautiful fiancée as we walk to the car park. The only way this could get better is if you tell me that the hotel didn't mess up our bookings and I can in fact just drag you to our room and not let you go until they physically throw us out of the building."

She bit her lip and shook her head no as he spun them around as she brought her hand up to caress his cheek softly, as though she wanted to just savour the feel of his face. He stopped moving with her and smiled down at her as he placed a soft kiss to her forehead. "What's got into you tonight, huh? You're not even making fun of me for 'lowering the tone' by suggesting we get a room."

She had been acting strange for most of the night - it wasn't a bad strange or anything, it was just…odd. It was like she was in some sort of dreamy haze - the expression on her face had barely wavered all night and it was all that he could do to not get sucked into the trance alongside her.

"I just had a great time tonight," she said earnestly, her beautiful brown eyes never wavering from his as she leant forward and pressed her lips to his chest. "The best time. I'm sorry our booking didn't go through so we could stay out here tonight."

"I can live with waiting until we get home to have my wicked way with you," he smiled as he brought her left hand to his lips and pressed a kiss against her ring finger, causing her smile to grow wider and his heart to flutter in response. "You sure that's all it is though?"

She nodded, as she moved from his embrace, linking her hand with his as she did so and began pulling him towards the car-park, skipping every few steps before she fell back towards him and wrapping her arms around him again and shooting him the most beautiful smile that she only ever sent to him. "I love you."

"I love you too," he grinned at her as he linked his arms around her and began walking her backwards, causing her to giggle madly as she tried to keep her balance. "Even though you wouldn't let me drive tonight."

"The beer you had with dinner is the reason that I drove," she laughed as she tried not to stagger backwards as he continued to walk her backwards, ignoring her pleas to be released. "Besides - you know you like my car better than yours."

"My car got us to and from California on multiple occasions," he murmured as he kissed her skin softly. "But, I will concede that your car is pretty cool considering it's a chick's car."

"It's a good job I'm the only one who drives it then, right?" she asked in response, kissing him back softly. "Baby…when are you getting a new car?"

"I've told you on multiple occasions that our grandkids will be making fun of that truck. I am never getting rid of it," he whispered as he attempted to pull her even closer before he conceded defeat and loosened his grip slightly, just enough to guide her towards the car where he pressed her against it, caging her body in with his arms. "Besides, if I got rid of it, what would you have to make fun off?"

"Your hair?" she asked innocently before giggling at his dumbstruck face as she shook her head. "I would never make fun of your hair, even though it was ridiculously long for a while."

"I cut it once we lost!" he defended himself with a look at her. "I told you that it's unlucky to cut it during the season - do you think I wanted to look like I'd been living in a cave for a year?"

"It's unlucky to grow it so long that your bangs cause you to fall over your own feet on court as well," she reminded him as she stood on her tiptoes and leant towards his ear. "I'm biased though, but I still thought you looked good - even with the caveman look."

"I'm glad you're biased," he grinned down at her. "I'm still not getting rid of my truck though. Flattery will get you nowhere, Gabriella Montez."

She burst out laughing then as she tilted her head back, her eyes sparkling as she looked at him causing him to bite his lip just in order to stop from kissing her.

"Fine - then I hated your long hair. When you did your hair flip you looked like a bad shampoo model and I was always concerned I was going to come home and find you stealing my hair products," she laughed as she tried to duck under his arm. Just like that, the mood changed as they fell into their playful personas that tended to emerge when they were alone together. He let her escape slightly before he pounced at her, causing her to squeal as she ran to the other end of the car trying to keep out of his reach.

"Gabi, Gabi, Gabi," he said in a low, seductive tone as he took a step towards her, causing her to take a step back. "Baby…"

"Yes?"

"Come here."

She shook her head as she edged towards the rear of the car, her laughter still ringing in the air as she started to look for an escape route. He kept his eyes on hers, his stance ready to react the moment she did and he was sure she could see the intent in his eyes as he stalked her. "We…we should go home now…"

"So you can guard your hair products from the bad shampoo model?" he enquired causing her laughter to start again as he edged even closer.

"Of course not," she gasped in indignation. "Your hair isn't close to being long enough to use them now."

As she finished speaking she faked one way and ran the other, but he was used to this from basketball and before she had even reached the handle on the drivers side of the car he had jumped in front of her, wrapped his arms around her body and spun her around, causing her to shriek madly as he tickled her sides.

"Care to try again?" he growled into her neck trying to ignore the impulse of just throwing her in the car and running off with her to some fancy hotel for the night. That would happen a few weekends from now when they had both completed their final classes at college. He had already made the booking and he had arranged for her to get the weekend off from work so that for a solid four days it was simply going to be them getting waited on hand and foot before they visited both of their parents - Gabriella's in San Francisco, and his in Albuquerque.

"I…I'm sorry?" she giggled as she tried to wriggle free.

He stilled his hands but kept his lips on her neck as he spoke. "I don't know if I should forgive you, I'm feeling very emasculated now."

"I'm sorry, baby. How can I help you feel more manly?"

He hmmed, against her neck and couldn't stop the cocky smirk from taking over his face as he felt her shiver in response. His hands locked against her tighter involuntarily, holding her as close as possible so he could feel the way her body reacted to him. "Tell me you love me."

"You know I love you," she whispered as she leant her head back, causing him to place a kiss on the section of her throat he could reach, trying to remind himself that he couldn't let things get too out of hand so he had to curb his natural instincts until they were home which meant he had to diffuse it somehow.

"I know," he grinned, his smirk growing by the second as he thought. "Now agree with me that we'll travel to Albuquerque in my truck instead of flying home."

He felt her stiffen, which caused him to chuckle lowly against her skin and he loosened his grip slightly until she spun around in his arms. "You aren't serious?"

He shrugged his shoulders, purposefully ignoring her disbelieving tone. There actually was nothing wrong with his truck, and sure it broke down occasionally, it was mainly down to shoddy repair jobs. It was a classic - classics never went out of fashion and she'd realise that one day. "Deadly serious."

"But…why?"

"Two reasons - when we're finished in Albuquerque we can just go wherever we want as we head back home, kinda like a mini version of our Europe trip and two, I like the idea that we can just up and leave, or stay if we want to without worrying about flight-times and everything."

"You are serious," she responded as she looked at him then sighed, trying to find a way of being diplomatic. "Troy - the last time we tried to go anywhere in your truck we had to wait six hours for the repairman to fix it at the side of the road. It seriously cut into our Disneyland time."

He chuckled at the memory of his girlfriend pouting in the car as she kept looking at her watch longingly while they waited because she was worried they weren't going to have enough time to see everything she had been so desperate to see. "I fixed it! It's as good as new now," he promised as he looked at her and he could see her eyes soften before she nodded reluctantly. He grinned and kissed her cheek. "Thank you, baby - I promise we'll even hit Disneyland on the way home. You can go and gush over your fairytale princess's dresses and how cute all the little kids are."

She blushed slightly as she looked up at him. "I can't deny it. It's kinda my dream job."

"I know," he grinned as he looked down. "Just to remind you though - no fairytale goes 'Once upon a time the girl ditches her fiancé to go run off to live in a castle with fancy dresses and men in tights.' so if we go there, I fully expect to come back with the same fiancée I went there with."

She rolled her eyes good naturedly as he nudged her nose with his. "Fine - now that I have successfully re-inflated your fragile male ego by agreeing to a manly drive cross country, am I forgiven?"

"Of course," Troy smirked as he let her go slightly, but kept his gaze locked on hers as he ran a hand through her hair. "You look beautiful tonight, by the way."

She blushed as the same smile she had been fighting all night came back to her face. "Charmer."

"I try," he smiled as he pressed his lips to hers softly. "I had a great time tonight," he whispered as he leant his forehead against hers, nudging her slightly with his nose. "But I think it's time we got home before I do something wholly inappropriate and get us banned from here for life, what do you say?"

Gabriella giggled and nodded her head, retrieving her keys from her bag as she reluctantly spun away from him only for him to grab the keys out her hand in order to unlock the driver's door for her. As he held it open he took her hand and spun her around before kissing her hand softly, his eyes meeting hers. "Your chariot awaits, Milady."

"Why thank you, kind Sir," she grinned as she curtsied in response and stepped into the car, allowing him to close the door behind her.

He grinned as he ran round to the passenger's side and jumped in the car, shooting her a smile, eager to get back home so the rest of their night could continue.

* * *

Gabriella was a fan of surprises. It hadn't always been that way - when she was a little girl the surprises that she used to receive tended to fall into the 'Gabriella - surprise, we're moving to Sacramento! Pack up your room' category as opposed to any other ones. Surprises generally meant leaving and moving on, so she was always dubious about things that she didn't see coming.

When she got together with Troy, she had to really re-evaluate her opinion on the unexpected as it turned out that her future husband was just full of surprises. A nice guy jock, who could sing and didn't shy away from academic achievement? No one could have saw that coming. There was no such thing as a schedule with Troy - he would climb her balcony at all hours, phone calls would be whenever the moment fit, and dates would be off the cuff. Sometimes they would go to a fancy restaurant and others they would just eat on a blanket in her room or in the back of his truck after driving twenty miles out of town so they could be completely sure of being alone.

Getting used to the unpredictable became a bit of an addiction to her - which is why she had started to take it upon herself to try and surprise him on occasion. When they moved to California, she hadn't told him that she was learning to drive until she showed up at his school, clutching her new permit proudly along with a sheet of directions that she handed him directing him to a café fifteen miles away from his campus along with a menu that had the breakfast options circled. She knew it was killing him as much as it was killing her that they couldn't spend more time together, so she presented him with an alternative and thus began their breakfast meetings that got them through their first year.

Her next effort had been at Thanksgiving in their Freshmen year when he had come home from an away game, only to open the door to find a full Thanksgiving meal waiting on him, because she didn't want this, their first Thanksgiving alone together, to be a takeout and soda in front of the TV.

Perhaps the best surprise she had ever managed to come up with though was when she had met him for breakfast one morning and handed him over an envelope that contained a pair of Lakers tickets. He had worked so hard with his team and she had wanted to get him something to celebrate his first season, so when she found out that her boss's husband had season tickets that he didn't always use, she knew she had to make it happen for him. He had been convinced it was a trick for hours until she told him to call the ticket office and check, and when he wasn't _profusely_ thanking her for her thoughtfulness he was admiring the tickets.

Ever since then - she had been hooked on what basketball did to him, did to them.

She still couldn't get the smile off her face as she drove them home. She knew that she had to work the following day (a downside of having to keep in the boss's good graces) but it was a small price to pay considering the night they had just had together.

The giddy, love-struck mood she had been in for most of the night had subsided when their collective funny mood had descended into teasing and laughter that hadn't ended yet.

"So - what other plans do you have to amuse your handsome husband-to-be tonight?"

She grinned as his teasing voice snapped her out of her thoughts, and she turned her head enough to see him wink at her, before she turned back to the road, trying to ignore the way her stomach was fluttering. "You think highly of yourself tonight, Wildcat…"

"Hey, I'm not the one who didn't watch any of the game that was playing out twenty feet in front of us," he raised his hands in mock surrender, chuckling at her indignant expression. "Don't deny it. You couldn't answer any of Howard's questions at the end which is why he is under the impression we just go to games to make-out."

"I…I…I was distracted, I will admit," she finally conceded with a sigh. "It was your fault."

"How exactly was it my fault that you didn't know the score?"

"You kissed me like that when we went into the stadium and got me all…distracted."

It was true - she had planned on spending their usual date-night watching the game, listening to the old guy behind them bitch and moan whilst discreetly celebrity spotting, but almost the second they entered the arena the plan changed. Before they had even got to their seats he had dragged her to the court and kissed her so thoroughly that she almost lost her balance. She hadn't seen it coming and when she questioned what had happened he had merely shrugged and told her that it was one of his fantasy's and that he hadn't wanted to miss the opportunity.

He laughed louder, his smile now being replaced by a smug smirk as he accepted her words. "I told you, baby - no pretty boy actor was going to upstage us tonight."

"Please," she snorted as she rolled her eyes. "Hot-shot movie stars aside, you only did that so the old guy behind us would complain more about us than them. You know, I'm beginning to think you feel threatened that they are more into each other than we are."

"I would never do that!" he exclaimed, half-heartedly, causing her to giggle at his blatant lack of conviction. He was never a convincing liar… "And I'm sorry, but I don't know about any movie star, but it's impossible for me to be anymore into you so I don't feel remotely threatened, Ms Montez."

"Sure," she rolled her eyes. "You're as obsessed with them as Howard is."

"I…resent that," he stated before shaking his head, clearly deciding to change the subject. "You know, when we're swimming in money…"

"Like Scrooge McDuck?" she giggled, remembering an older conversation where he had hinted that the Disney character was his epitome of wealth.

"Like Scrooge McDuck," he replied with a roll of his eyes. "Ha ha, my fiancée the comedienne everybody. Anyway, as I was saying, when we are extremely wealthy we are so buying those seats in front of Howard."

"I cannot believe he told you his name. You know he hates us, right?"

"He does not hate us. He just doesn't know us," Troy argued. "I think his opinion on us is improving all the time - most of the time now he's just mocking us quietly instead of loudly complaining to everyone around him like he used to do. He's definitely starting to understand us."

"He so doesn't understand us," Gabriella said as she thought back to the times they had sat in front of the older guy and the varying looks and comments that he had tossed out the last three years. "You know, if we get seats in front of him he would just heckle us every game," she stated with a shake of her head. "Besides, Mr Fiancé - for all we know, you may be unavailable to go and watch games with me anyway…"

He groaned as he leant his head back. "No - no more talk about the draft. I don't want to think about it because it will just depress me if I set my heart on it and I don't get it, and instead of making all this money for us, we will be building a home and a family on two teacher's salary's, or on a teacher's and a glorified masseuse's salary."

"I think a glorified masseuse is called a physical therapist, Wildcat," she joked.

"Okay, if you want to be technical about it," he admitted. "But, the point stands. If I make the NBA, even for a year or two as a backup, we will be set right away whereas if I don't…if I don't we're going to have to work for years to get a good house and have enough savings to get everything I want for us and…"

"And if it happens like that, it happens like that. So we have an extra couple of years in our apartment, big deal. We'll be happy and fine regardless, I promise." She shook her head as she kept her eyes on the road, trying to hide her smile. He had been obsessing about not being good enough to be drafted for a few years, but it had definitely increased recently as one of his team-mates was declaring and was expected to go quite high. As everyone knew that Troy was a better player than Clinton, the pressure on Troy from everyone, but in particular from himself was increasing and it was rare for a day to go by when he didn't mention the following year's draft and what Clinton's prospects and ratings were in the national polls and measuring his own prospects in accordance. She didn't want to see him stress about it, and she was desperate for him to have as much faith in himself as she had in him. "You have a year to think about what you want to do about the draft, and you know it doesn't matter to me - I'll be proud of you no matter what. It would be kinda cool if one of my first wifely duties were to involve wearing your shirt to an actual NBA game though…"

"Shhh, Gabi," he whined. "That image would just make me more disappointed if I didn't make it."

She shot him a look from the corner of her eyes and smiled at him. "Why would it make you disappointed? I mean if you didn't get drafted I could always find another place to wear your shirt, with your name…I do tend to sleep in them when you're not home you know…"

He sent her a thoroughly unimpressed look. "If you insist on torturing me, you could at least do the decent thing and pull in somewhere since I'm not sure I will be able to take the trip home without at least kissing you."

"You know that patience is considered a virtue." She couldn't suppress her giggle as she shook her head, flashing him a smile. "You made fun of me even though it was your fault so you will just have to sit there and distract yourself until we get home. It's not that far."

"Yeah, yeah. You just keep driving and stop looking at me like that. Stupid hotel messing up our reservation," he mumbled as he leant back, his head against the headrest as he looked at her, trying to disguise the smile on his lips, but doing so unsuccessfully. For all that he seemed to think she was in a funny mood, Gabriella knew for a fact that he was in almost as strange a mood as she was and she figured that the two of them were feeding off each other. "So…next game, are you actually going to watch any of the game or are you going to spend it gazing at your handsome future husband some more?"

"I wasn't 'gazing', I was observing - there is a difference," she muttered as she slowed down at the intersection. "You are so lucky I love you."

He grinned wider as he reached over and kissed her hand, before letting it drop again so she could put it back on the wheel. "I tell myself that everyday."

She shot him a small smile before turning back to the road. "Did you call your mom?"

"Yeah. Dad's apparently having some sort of feud with the new gym teacher due to him trying to steal some of the basketball kids for football and the fact that neither of them are willing to let the kids play in both teams."

"Call me naïve but I swear I thought recruitment drives happened in college and not High School."

"Gotta love East High politics," Troy shrugged, clearly unworried by the whole thing after hearing of similar arguments all his life. "Basketball has been number one for so long that as soon as football sees even an intro they are going to pounce."

"Hey, at least it's not the drama department he's fighting with for a change," she smiled. "Is he okay?"

"You know my dad - he's not happy unless he has some feud at work," he shrugged as he ran the palm of his hand against this thigh. "Oh, and apparently we've to go straight home once we finish up and not go 'gallivanting' like we did last year. Mom's orders."

"We didn't 'gallivant' last year," she said in confusion as she tried to think back to their last summer.

"Apparently going to Hawaii, even for a week, before going home is the same as gallivanting," he sighed as he rolled his eyes. "I suppose we can give them this considering next year will entail you, me, a white dress, a tux, and then our month long trip to Europe."

"I cannot wait," she sighed as she thought about the day in just over a year where the ring on her finger would be accompanied by another band of gold. After that there was their trip - their one, great big adventure prior to entering the real world. Their route across Europe was planned out and pinned to their message-board at home, along with little notes and drawings that seemed to be getting added at various points as they decided to veer to yet another place. Originally it wasn't going to be their Honeymoon, but they had planned it since just before their second year at College and although they both would have probably enjoyed spending two weeks in a tropical paradise with nothing but each other for company, they both wanted this. This once in a lifetime adventure that would only be them. "The next year is going to be the longest year ever, you know that right?"

He grinned as he watched her drive. "I do know that, but you did veto my suggestion. Just think, you could be Gabriella Bolton right now…"

"Troy, this year will fly by in comparison to the lifetime of lectures we would have received had we ran off and got married without telling them," she giggled as she shook her head. "Now if we could do that without them knowing…"

"For that to be successful I guess it would mean that we would have to be discrete when we went home, and I'm not sure I would be able to avoid telling someone," he conceded with a sigh.

"Me too," she said softly. "I don't think I would be able to avoid smiling all the time to be honest so eloping might be difficult."

"Sadly," he sighed before smiling at her, causing her heart to race. "Although maybe it isn't a bad thing - I kinda want to show everyone that they all knew nothing all this time so maybe waiting for our 'I told you so's' isn't so bad. I can wait a year for you to be mine officially especially as I get to go home with you every night while we wait."

"That you do," she smiled as she slowed down at the traffic lights. "Speaking of, what are our plans for the rest of the night, Mr Bolton?"

He smirked as he turned his gaze forward, the wheels in his brain not even concealed. "You mean I get to choose the rest of our night?"

She giggled as she waited on the cars in front of them to move. "It only seems fair since I picked the game and the restaurant."

"I have a few ideas already," he mused as he brought a finger to his lips. "I guess we'll see how they develop on the way home."

"Should I ask?"

He plastered an innocent expression on his face before grinning wildly at her. "Probably best not to, at least until we're home."

"Well, I'm all yours until noon tomorrow, then I have to go into work."

He scoffed. "I thought you were always mine?"

She caught his teasing smile and returned it as the lights turned ahead of them and the traffic started moving. "Allow me to rephrase - physically I am all yours until noon, every other way, I'm always yours…"

"Nice backtrack, Ms Fiancée," he chuckled as she drove ahead. "I have to say the feeling is mut…"

Before he could continue, Gabriella's brow furrowed as she heard a loud screeching of tyres. In the split second from when she heard the car screech, she quickly scanned either side to see headlights hurtling towards them from the passenger side. She didn't have any time to scream, her instincts worked instantaneously as she turned the wheel furiously, trying to spin the car enough to avoid the worst of the impact. To spin the car enough so that the oncoming car wasn't hurtling at the passenger side.

As quick as she reacted though, as much as she tried, she couldn't get her car to move quick enough and the hurtling headlights ploughed into the back of her car, flipping it over before it righted itself as all Gabriella could hear was the sickening crunch of metal and glass as the car went hurtling towards the nearby crash barrier as it was crushed from behind from the other vehicle, and crushed from the front by the barrier. She thought the impact would be the worst of the pain, but that was child's play compared to the agony she experienced as she felt shards of metal and glass pierce through her flesh and the only sound she could hear was her own piercing scream before everything turned momentarily black.

* * *

As the blaring noise of the crash calmed to an almost eerie silence, Gabriella forced her eyes open as far as she could. She felt strangely numb initially as she tried to free her left hand that was pinned behind the wheel painfully. Realising it was a vain effort after a few tugs she gave up, taking in a shuddering breath as she looked down only to see metal sticking out the right side of her chest, just below her collar bone. The initial panic and fear she expected to feel with seeing her body pinned and the blood oozing from her body never hit her - it was like it was all a surreal dream. Calmness and numbness washed over her, perhaps her body's way of protecting itself from the injuries, and she found herself at that point being almost detached from the situation. She could vaguely taste blood on her lips, and could feel the warm sticky substance running down her forehead, but the gruesome sight of her body impaled by part of her car barely registered at first. He few seconds of blissful ignorance didn't last long though as flashes of the moments before played in her head causing her panic to grow. They had crashed, they were hurt and this was bad. She moved her head, needing to see that Troy was alright. Everything would be okay if he was alright. "Tr…Troy?"

The smoke in the car made it difficult to see, but she knew she had to stay calm in order for them to be okay. Panicking wouldn't solve anything and she needed everything to be okay. Everything had to be okay.

"Troy…Tr…Troy," she gasped out again. "Ple…please, Troy. Whe…where are you? Ple…please…"

She closed her eyes and tried to blink them clear - thoughts ran through her head. Perhaps he got out somehow and was trying to get help? Perhaps he was thrown clear? Perhaps…perhaps someone had taken him out already? Perhaps he was okay…When she opened her eyes again, she saw him, laying next to her, his head drooped onto his shoulder and she almost laughed in relief as she tried to reach over to grasp his hand. She couldn't reach very far though due to the way her body was pinned to the seat, so she settled for placing a few fingers on his forearm as she tried to control her breathing. "Ba…baby, wake…wake up, please…"

Her only response was silence and she felt her own eyes droop. Bar the blood on his forehead, he didn't look too hurt and she smiled as she didn't see any metal or glass sticking out his chest - that had to be a good sign. If he was okay then that was all that mattered. Nothing else mattered to her apart from that.

"Troy…you…you need to wake up. We…we're okay…help will be here…soon. It's…it's okay." She tried to force air into her lungs, but found the action was too painful so she settled for trying to take quick, rapid breaths instead as she extended her fingers further so she could touch more of him, needing to feel his touch. "Please…please wake…wake up. Troy…I…I need you…to get out…" she wheezed, feeling very little but coldness all around her. Even the skin of his arm felt cold, and she knew that was because she was loosing too much blood. She bit down on her lip and shook her head - she was not going to think like that. She was getting married, they were travelling, they had to visit their parents in a few weeks and she was not going to make him do all that without her. They both just had to hang on. "Tr…Troy? Someone…someone will bring…help. T…talk to me…please?" she waited a moment, hoping to hear a grunt, or a moan, or anything but she was met with only silence.

Outside the car she could hear voices, and the vague sounds that didn't sound like anything but it was getting too hard to make anything out. "Tr…Troy? I think…I think help's here, baby. Just…just…soon. Troy? If…" she wanted to say that if she didn't make it, that she would miss him, that she wanted him to be happy, that she was okay because he was okay. She had so many things that she wanted to say but the thought of not seeing him everyday made her heart feel like it was getting torn into shreds. She could feel the warm tears seep from her blurry eyes, the idea of him waking up and hurting because she wasn't there killing her but she wanted him to know that it was a sacrifice she would make every time. She couldn't say any of that though because she didn't want him to think she was giving up and she wasn't. She would never give up on him, and she'd fight - she would always fight for him. "I…I love you, Wi…Wildcat. For…forever. I…love you."

She tried to keep her eyes open, she tried to stay awake, but her eyes demanded the welcoming darkness that seemed like it was longing to embrace her. She concentrated one second longer on her numb fingers against his arm, but as she could no longer feel any warmth from anywhere in the car, her one link to consciousness was severed and she let her eyes slide shut, praying that when she woke up she would be safe in bed, wrapped in his warm arms and looking forward to their happily ever after.

* * *

_Author's Note - So there you go. This chapter was very, very, very difficult to write. I went through about half a dozen drafts just trying to work out what I wanted to do - did I want to show the crash, or not? Did I want Troy's POV or not? Did I want to show the basketball game and then imply in the next part what happened on the way home, or not? I had to try and develop things as I went and this is the result and I know it's not perfect, but with what I was trying to do with this chapter, I think it's as good as I will get it. I got a lot of PM's after the last chapter saying I should make this a different reality from ATKH's because it isn't fair what happens to them, and believe me I can understand - I hate that I've done what I've done, but…bad things happen to good, happy people and…that's what this is. Sometimes life sucks and there wouldn't be any tragedies in the world if bad things only happened to people who deserved it. I hope you guys understand. On the Brightside though - I did it in one-shot form so you can pretend this part and the next part didn't happen. ;)_


	5. The Villain Of The Piece?

_The Villain Of The Piece?_

Author's Note - Thank you all so much for the response to the last chapter. I was blown away by the reaction and I'm glad that you guys understood why I had to keep this as the ATKH's universe. This part killed me to write - if I thought the last chapter was a bitch to write then this one was even worse. As a result - this is slightly different than what I had planned and I'm doing another part after this because I don't feel happy ending it here when there are a few things I would like to expand on and frankly, I couldn't do that in this chapter or it would have been forty pages long. This part consists of two different times - we have directly after the accident and eight months later. I hope it's not too confusing to read and I know I could have separated it with italics but the flashbacks are what makes up the majority of the fic so they couldn't be italicised and the future parts don't look right in italics (it's my own weirdness, sorry) so I hope it's not too confusing to read.

I hope you all like - let me know what you think.

* * *

_You were supposed to be in there waiting on me. She promised me you were there..._

* * *

_There was something about feeling a pair of arms wrapped around you, of inhaling someone else's scent as you awoke, or feeling fingers in your hair, or another person's skin on top of your own. There was something comforting at feeling the slight abrasions caused by a guy's facial hair that had grown overnight rubbing against your shoulder and jaw and there definitely was something magical about waking up and finding two blue eyes gazing down at you as though you were the most beautiful thing in the universe. _

"_Wakey wakey Sleeping Beauty," he grinned as he brushed his lips on her jaw towards her ear. "The sun is up and I intend to spend the day with my beautiful fiancée before I have to share her with a hundred or so strangers."_

"_You wore me out, so you have to let me sleep now," she groaned as she clutched his hand and brought it to her lips, before cuddling closer to his body, her eyes sliding shut as she basked in the safety of his embrace as he flung a leg over hers in order to enclose her more fully. "And don't call them strangers. They are your parents friends and work colleagues so we have to be nice."_

"_So they give us good wedding presents?" she could feel his smirk against her skin and she nudged his bare chest lightly with her elbow before she turned over and pressed a kiss against his chest, her eyes still closed._

"_So that our parents have one less thing to complain about in the next six months," she murmured as she found her lips against his bare skin again, her sleepiness leaving her as she felt his breath catch at the contact and smirked lightly herself._

"_Screw the six months," he whispered as he grabbed her left hand, her eyes fluttering open at the contact. "You, and me, and a plane," he began kissing her softly as he manoeuvred himself so he was braced above her. "Today."_

"_You still want to elope?"_

_He bent down and pressed his lips to hers softly before he pulled back, one hand caressing her cheek softly as he pulled back and nodded. "I want you as mine today. We'll give them their big wedding, but I want you. I want our forever to begin today."_

_She reached up and ran her hand through his hair down the side of his face. Of course she knew there were a million reasons why she should say no, in fact a few months ago they had both went through periods where they had to talk the other one out of the elopement plan, but somehow this felt like the right decision. Somehow she knew she wouldn't regret this. She lifted her head up gently to press her lips to his and nodded her head. "Okay."_

_His smile could have powered a small city with it's brightness as he grinned at her and he made a move to get up off her. _

"_Where are you going?"_

"_I'm going to go book our flight before one of us chickens out," he said with a grin as he grabbed his shorts before he leant over and pressed a kiss to her lips again. "Go back to sleep beautiful - you'll need your rest as I fully intend to start the wedding celebrations the second I get that ring on your finger."_

_She giggled and lay back down, eyeing him happily. "You better get back here when you're done and rest up yourself then. I don't like sleeping alone."_

_He grinned as he tipped his head before taking her left hand in hers and kissing it. "Don't worry, I'll be right here when you wake up. Forever."_

_She yawned as she smiled at him, snuggling back into the pillow and reluctantly letting him pull away. "I'm gonna hold you to that, Wildcat…"_

"_See you soon, Gabi…" he whispered, his voice fading away as her eyes drifted shut again, smiling as she looked at the sparking ring he had just kissed and imagined how, in a few short hours there would be another band beside it. Forever._

Gabriella's eyes snapped open quickly and for a split second she smiled as she imagined her upcoming wedding day and how amazing it was going to be. For a split second her heart soared and she could almost make herself believe that he was in the other room looking for flights, or cooking her a surprise breakfast in bed (or burning her a surprise breakfast in bed), or secretly watching his cheesy talk shows that she always made fun of him because. For a split second she was happy.

A split second doesn't last that long though and all at once everything came crashing down again forcing the smile that was on her face to fall as she was faced with her reality. She was lying alone in the bed in the shirt she was trying to pretend had always been hers. There were no arms around her, no kisses along her neck, no breath in her ear, no skin under her fingers.

The other side of the bed had only been occupied by her in the last eight months, there was no one in the kitchen making breakfast, there had been no early morning conversation in bed, there were no flights to Vegas, there had been no party with their parents friends, and, as she looked down at her scarred left hand, there was no engagement ring on her finger anymore.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, pressing her palms against them, trying to remember to breathe even though like every morning, after every dream, she just wished that she would stop breathing. It would have been easier if it had been nightmares she had - but they never were. Each one felt real - they were doing mundane things, they were cooking dinner, or watching a movie, or shopping, or laying in bed talking and they were crueller because of that. If they had been sky diving, or walking along a waterfall, or living in an elaborate house then she would have known not to believe them, but it was never like that. In those moments, those blissful seconds, everything made sense, only for her to open her eyes and realise that none of it was real. That instead of waking from a nightmare and into happiness and security, she was actually moving from bliss, from perfection into her own version of hell.

It had been eight months and three days. Well, technically eight months and twenty-four days but those twenty one days she had been clueless so she wasn't sure if it counted. She had only been aware for eight months and three days. Two hundred and forty eight days. Five thousand nine hundred and fifty two hours…

She hated the way her brain worked sometimes. Only she would work out the time in hours, but she had always done it, especially relating to them. Two thousand, one hundred and sixty three hours between the after-party and Graduation, one hundred and fifty seven hours separation when she went to Stanford without him.

Seven hours and twenty three minutes between them getting in her car at home and crashing into the barrier.

She forced her eyes open and took a deep breath as she sat up. She changed out the shirt and folded it tenderly before pressing her lips to the name on it and hiding it under the comforter so that no one could possibly see before she grabbed her towel and headed to the shower, casting only a sideways glance at the empty spot on the empty dresser that used to hold a photo frame as she instinctively forced a smile on her face when she caught her reflection in the mirror. Even if it was only to herself, she knew she had to try because that's what everyone expected, and that's what he would have wanted and no matter how hard it was for her, she was determined to do her best.

It was a hard part to play, but practice makes perfect and she just hoped that one day it wouldn't be an act anymore.

* * *

_Gabriella._

Her eyes were heavy, and she felt like she couldn't breathe due to the absolute agony that was against her chest.

_Gabriella._

She felt darkness around her, and a calming presence told her that the darkness was good – that when she opened her eyes, everything would hurt again. That she had to relax, that everything would be okay if she just let go a little.

_Gabriella!_

Her eyes flickered at the insistent call of her name and she struggled against the darkness to force open a weary eye before immediately closing it again at the assault the light did on her senses.

"That's it, Gabriella. Open your eyes."

She forced her eye open again, squinting against the light to see a man leaning over her, a small torch in one hand and a chart in the other. She looked around, but immediately felt an unbearable pull on her chest which caused her to scream out in pain, except she couldn't scream because there was an oxygen mask over her face that muffled the sound.

"Relax, Gabriella," the man said as he nodded to someone who came over the other side and took her hand. "My name is Doctor Zeigler. You were in a car accident, can you remember?"

She thought for a moment, trying to think before it came flashing back to her, the basketball game, the lights, the car, the barrier, Troy and waiting for the ambulance. "Tr...Troy?"

The doctor flashed the nurse a look before looking down at her with a smile. "You were very, very lucky as your injuries were very severe. We've had to put a tube in your chest to keep your lung inflated, and several ribs were broken. Your spleen was ruptured and unfortunately we had to remove it and there were some other pretty bad injuries that we will discuss in more detail in a few days. Your body has been through a tremendous trauma and we're going to give you morphine for the pain, but considering the extent of your injuries, I think you were an extremely fortunate young woman. We're going to keep an eye on you, so don't worry about anything. You are in good hands, and we're not losing you now."

She could hear the words, but the meaning was lost on her as she turned her head around, hoping to see her fiancé laying in another bed beside her, or in a chair beside her bed but the room was empty besides the doctor and the nurse. She didn't know why, but her eyes began to water and she fought back a choked sob. This wasn't right - none of this felt right. She was supposed to wake up in bed with him, not alone in a hospital room with strangers beside her. She was supposed to feel warm, happy and protected instead of this weird, soul-destroying feeling of being alone.

"Oh sweetie," the nurse said kindly. "Don't worry – this is a completely normal reaction after being anaesthetised. Everything probably seems too much to deal with just now but you just need to relax, and breathe – everything is going to be fine."

Gabriella couldn't even nod, all she knew is that something didn't feel right and she didn't know what it was. The physical pain was unbearable but there was something else, something she didn't understand that was tearing her apart and she couldn't stop her tears.

"Doctor, her pressure is rising..." The voice of the nurse asked and Gabriella wasn't aware of what the doctor said until the nurse spoke again. "Gabriella, we're going to give you something to help you sleep for a few hours and let your body heal up a little. When you wake up we'll let your mom in to see you, and some of your friends are here as well."

"Troy? Where...where's Troy?"

"Don't worry about anything, Gabriella," the doctor said gently. "Just relax."

She opened her mouth to ask again, but before she could, she felt the welcoming, warm darkness surround her again. She had no desire to avoid it and allowed it's comfort to embrace her – she would deal with everything else later.

* * *

When Gabriella heard voices next she didn't seem to have the strength to open her eyes in response. Who knew that sleeping could make you so tired? The voices around her seemed to be bickering and she tried to focus on who it was.

"This is wrong!"

"Chad, shut up - it's not your call!"

"She'll hate you both, do you understand that? It's fucking cruel!"

"Keeping her alive is not cruel."

"Both of you be quiet - no arguing about this in here."

"Ms Montez, I am begging you not to do this. Don't tell her, fine - but don't lie to her like this."

"I'm sorry Chad, but I've made my decision."

"The right decision, which you would see if…"

"Taylor, shut up and listen to yourself! You think she would want this?"

"It's not about what she wants, it's about what she needs."

Gabriella blinked as she started to make out the voices. Her mom, Taylor and Chad were arguing about something. She almost mentally rolled her eyes - Taylor and Chad's break-up hadn't seemed that bitter to begin with, but their relationship had deteriorated over the three years and had turned somewhat glacial when he started 'associating' with Sharpay which Gabriella had always wondered about as Taylor had dated various guys in the past so it wasn't like she was pining. Only the two of them would think a hospital was an appropriate place to vent though…

"I don't want any part of this."

"Leave then," Taylor hissed.

"I'm not leaving until I make sure she's okay."

"You aren't getting near her until you agree."

"Chad, I'm sorry," her mom's voice said quietly. "Taylor's right. You can't see her unless…"

"You have to be fucking kidding me? Unless I recite your sick fairytale, I can't even talk to her?"

"It's about what is good for her," Taylor said. "Why don't you jump on a plane and head back to the Barbie."

"Is that honestly what this is about? At least Sharpay admits she's a bitch," Chad spat. "She's my friend too, okay? I get that everyone is upset but…Troy…"

"Chad," her mom's voice said softly. "Please. I understand, I do but you have to understand too. I spoke to Jack and Lucille and they agree."

"Ms Montez, I am begging you not to do this. Please…don't do this to her. Please, please…it will kill her when she realises…don't do that to her."

"I'm sorry, Chad. My mind is made up."

"Can I…I need to see her. I need to make sure she's alright. I need to do that. I won't…won't tell, but I'm not going to lie. Don't make me leave just yet. I need one of them…please…I'll leave right after just…I need to see, for him. Please…"

Before her mom could answer Gabriella forced her eyes open and forced hoarse words from her dry throat. "You…better not leave…took…long enough…to get you…to visit…"

"Gabs!" Chad's loud exclamation was echoed by her mom and Taylor and Gabriella forced herself to smile before her eyes drifted shut again.

"Oh baby!" her mom said as she clasped her right hand. "We were all so worried. But don't worry, the doctors say everything is looking good, now. A few little complications but…everything's going to be okay."

"Good," she whispered as she took a deep breath. "Where's…where's Troy?"

She didn't notice Chad turn her back on her, or his fist clenching and she definitely didn't see the tears flood to his eyes or his shoulders heave as her mom and Taylor blocked her fiancée's best friend from view.

"Troy…Troy's next door, sweetie," her mom said quietly as she brushed some hair out Gabriella's eyes. "He got hurt pretty badly, but he's okay and he wanted to be here, but he just can't yet. He's going to be so happy that you're okay - I'm not sure we'll be able to get the grin off his face since he's been asking about you non-stop."

"Re…really?" Gabriella said, a painful smile breaking out on her sore face. "He's okay? Good…that's…that's great. In…the car I thought he was but…I was still scared. Is…is he mad at me?"

"Why on earth would he be mad at you, Gabs?" Taylor asked as she took Gabriella's hand and patted it softly.

"I didn't swerve quickly enough," Gabriella whispered. "I tried, but he was so fast and I…he's really not mad?"

"Definitely not mad," Taylor said with a smile. "Mad that he can't see you, but not mad at you."

Gabriella giggled lightly as she felt a weight lift off her. "Can I…can I go see him?"

"Not until you're out of here," her mom said quickly. "Once you're out of here, you can see him. So you need to concentrate on getting better, okay?"

Gabriella smiled and nodded, determined to do absolutely everything it took to get out this room. She was just setting back, the smile hurting her painful face when she saw Chad leaning his head against the door. "Chad, are you okay?"

The boy lifted his head, and Gabriella noticed him take a deep breath as he wiped his face quickly before he turned to her and grinned at her. "Of course - you're alive and awake and that's the best news I've had all day. All week actually."

She saw his eyes fill with tears again and something began to gnaw at her, the same uneasy feeling she had when she had woke up before. "Chad, what's wrong? Are…are you mad at me? Did…Troy can still play basketball again right?"

"Of course he can," Taylor interrupted quickly. "It will just take time."

"I'm not mad at you, Gabs," Chad whispered as he walked closer to her and carefully took her hand in his. "I'm just so happy that you're okay. I need to go now though, okay? I promise I'll come back soon and see you when you get some rest. I promise."

She nodded her tired head and gave him a smile as he reached down and kissed her cheek. "Troy loves you. He always loved you, from the very first time he met you, he was whipped. He came home from that vacation stalking your picture and pining for you, and from that second he was yours. Nothing changes that, do you hear me? Nothing."

Gabriella smiled softly as she pulled Chad weakly back to her and smiled at what she thought was a direct message from her boyfriend. "Tell him I love him too, okay? More than anything."

Chad gave her a tight smile as he backed up without looking at her mom or Taylor. "I'll be back in a few days, Gabs. You stay well, okay? Bye."

Without waiting for a reply he walked out the door and Gabriella watching him disappear until she heard a loud bang as thought someone had punched a wall and what sounded like Chad's scream. Her eyes widened as she looked at Taylor and her mom. "Was…was that Chad? Is…is he okay?"

"He's stressed," Taylor answered immediately. "It has been a long few days for him and I think he's just…stressed. He hasn't slept properly."

"You should talk to him, Tay," Gabriella yawned as she sank back just as a nurse came in. "You two were close and he could probably use a friend who isn't in hospital."

"Can I ask you two ladies to leave?" The nurse said kindly as Gabriella tried to place her name. She didn't think she had seen her before. "I need to check her wounds before the doctor comes in."

"Of course," her mom said with a smile. "We'll be right back, sweetie."

"Make sure Chad's okay?" Gabriella asked as her eye lids fluttered. "And tell Troy…tell him I love him."

"Of course," her mom said quietly. "We won't be long."

"Your mom playing messenger just now?" The nurse asked with a smile as she pulled the covers back slightly.

"My fiancée is next door. He can't visit yet but he's okay…" Gabriella sighed as she closed her eyes. "That's all that matters. Do you know him?" Gabriella asked sleepily. "He's not a bad patient, is he?"

"I don't know him," the nurse smiled gently. "How do you think he is?"

Gabriella smiled softly. "I bet…I bet he won't admit to being in pain at all. He is such a guy…my guy though. I can't wait to be well enough to see him."

The nurse said something in reply, but Gabriella didn't hear it as she drifted off - thinking of her fiancée who was only a wall away.

* * *

One day when Troy and Gabriella were back in Albuquerque during the summer before their Sophomore year at college the two of them had been laying out in the yard on a hammock that Troy had insisted his parents purchase since their usual hammock location was thwarted by the new family living in Gabriella's old house. They had lain there and talked about everything and somehow after talking about sports, the discussion had turned to a discussion on different types of pain. Gabriella had argued that clearly child-birth had to be the most painful ailment a person could suffer simply due to the fact that logistics of producing another human being out your body should be somewhat physically impossible but which happened anyway. She had made a compelling argument that he had attempted to over-ride with the claim that he knew a worse pain and had in fact suffered from it. He had claimed that one day when he was on track he had torn him hamstring which he claimed felt like he had been shot, or stabbed with a knife. She had countered that he had neither been shot or stabbed by a knife so how did he know it was a valid comparison, until he had made mention that from the best of his knowledge she hadn't actually given birth so how would she know that childbirth felt like so he won by default as he had first hand knowledge.

It had been a stupid game that had culminated with them clowning around in the hammock until they had both landed on the ground in a heap, giggling wildly before being purposefully separated by his parents in order to 'cool' things down before dinner.

A stupid game it may have been, but Gabriella knew that she had a winner now in terms of pain. She found it hard to believe that anything could top two electric paddles being placed on your chest and activated while you were still awake, yet here she was. Apparently it wasn't the first time she had been shocked like that, but it had been the first time she had been conscious of it, and she had to say, she was definitely binning her tazer when she got home due to not wishing that sort of pain on anyone.

She blinked her weary eyes open, her entire body hurting and every second of consciousness killing her. There had a mask over her mouth helping her breathe, a side-affect of her recent surgery, and she supposed it was good she was getting oxygen as she wasn't sure that she had the energy to breath for herself at the moment. Her whole body was burning, and her limbs felt heavy and weighted. She moaned slightly at the pain and closed her eyes, wishing it away as a nurse began fiddling with the machine beside her bed that she knew contained her morphine drip.

"Gabriella, you had to go back into surgery and that's why you are here in recovery. Don't worry, the anaesthetic is why you are so groggy but when we get you back to your room you will feel a lot better."

Gabriella couldn't even mumble a response as her eyes fluttered shut, the darkness warm and welcoming and she could vaguely hear a machine bleeping wildly in the background as she almost allowed herself to fall into the darkness. Before she fully committed to it though, she remembered that she had to stay awake. She had to get better for him. She owed him that.

She forced her heavy eyes open and clenched her jaw as the pain washed over her body again, hoping that the morphine would kick in soon. She had no idea what was happening to her body, or why it was happening, all she knew was that she had to be strong for him. She had promised him the night before they left for California that she would never leave him, and she fully intended on keeping that promise. And promise was a big word after all…

* * *

Gabriella styled her hair, and put on her make-up, carefully hiding the long scar that ran down the side of her face. She had been offered plastic surgery to try and hide it, but as she could hide it with make-up she had put it off. It felt wrong to her to get surgery for something so superficial when she could disguise it herself and she liked to think that as much as she sometimes didn't feel like herself, deep down she was still the same girl who had sat on the sofa with her boyfriend and promised him that she wouldn't be one of those girls who obsessed about what other people thought of her after they had watched yet another program about plastic surgery going wrong. Sure, it wasn't really the same thing - but promises had always been a big thing with Gabriella, and she meant to keep as many as she could, even if no one else knew about them.

She straightened her pretty shirt before smiling at her reflection. She look like herself which was what the starting goal had been when she had got up that morning and after a full day of classes, she was still looking okay.

"You look great, Gabs."

Her gaze lifted from her reflection to see her best friend standing in the doorway, the voices of the visiting Kelsi and Ryan echoing through from the other room. After what had happened, Taylor had opted to transfer to LA to do her Post Grad course in order to be with Gabriella since she had refused to move in with her mom, or even allow her mom to give her any serious help in her recuperation period.

Gabriella had, of course, tried to talk Taylor out of it, but Taylor, like always, knew what she wanted and had claimed she was planning on doing it anyway even though they all know she hadn't. Taylor saw it as a penance that she had to do and Gabriella, although unable to forgive what her best friend had done, couldn't find it in her to hold it against her indefinitely and was doing her best to move on from it. Taylor hadn't had the idea, and although she blindly followed the plan and her part hurt, it wasn't her that had caused this.

"Thanks," Gabriella whispered as she smoothed her hair slightly. "Um…I thought maybe we could just stay in - watch some movies, eat a ridiculous amount of take-away food, have a drink and maybe roll out the dance mat and clown around just the four of us? I don't really feel like going out."

"No," Taylor said resolutely. "No, we're going out and we're going to have a good time. You and I are going to dance, and have fun and smile at cute boys…" Gabriella's carefully crafted façade faltered slightly and Taylor quickly corrected. "I'm going to smile at cute boys anyway and we're going to have a birthday that you'll remember. Okay? We'll have the night in before Ryan and Kelsi head back to New York, okay? Tonight we're going to go and have fun."

Gabriella smiled and nodded, realising that arguing wasn't really going to do any good. She had discovered that since that day that arguing was a bad thing. If you didn't want to go to a therapist it meant you were in denial, if you didn't want to go shopping it meant you were depressed, if you didn't want to put makeup on, it meant you were miserable about your looks, if you weren't interested in going out, it meant you were closing yourself off…everything from her clothes, her hair, her apartment, her tone of voice had been analysed and she quickly realised that she had to conform to what everyone expected if she wanted to have any space. So that's what she did.

"Gabs?"

Gabriella spun around, snapped out of her thoughts as Taylor took a good look at her. "Yeah, Tay?"

"Are you happy?"

Gabriella didn't know how to answer that - she was trying to be happy, did that count? What about being happy that her friends were happy? There were times that she was happy - when she was with her friends and didn't have to think about anything, when she had so much work from her classes that she could barely find time to sleep never mind think about anything else, when she read a good book, when she was asleep…there were lots of moments when she was happy…

"I mean, really happy and not just pretending that you are so that we all leave you alone."

"Why…why would you ask that?" she figured deflection was a better idea than deception as she ran her left hand down her leg.

"Because…you smile, and you laugh and sometimes…" Taylor took a deep breath and shook her head. "I just don't know if I've seen a real smile from you since that day in the hospital and I don't know if it's just me that hasn't seen it because of what happened, or if it's everyone. I'd like to think that it was just me…but I don't know."

That day.

The worst day of her life. The day she lost everything she had ever had any faith in - her soul mate, her best friend, her planned future, her mother's trust…

"I'm fine," she forced out as she turned back to the mirror. Her smile fixed back in place so that no one would ever see the effort it took to keep it there. "Lets go have some fun and find you a cute guy, huh?"

"You're on, Ms Montez - lets go have the best birthday ever, okay?"

Gabriella nodded, her head commenting that it would never be that, but her smile saying that she was open to the possibility even if they both knew it was a lie.

* * *

Gabriella was almost giddy as she sat on her bed – at long last she had been let out of ICU, which meant she could have more visitors. It had been hard for her to last three weeks with only her mom for company but she was relieved that now she would be able to see everyone. Taylor had somehow managed to sneak in, but Troy was unable to be so stealthy due to his injuries, but now that she was making good progress she would finally get to see him.

She grinned as she saw a young nurse walk past her door. "Hi, excuse me?"

"Yes, Ms Montez?"

"Gabriella," she corrected with a smile. "Can you tell me when visiting time is here? I know in ICU it's mainly down to the nurse's discretion, but apparently out here it's different."

The blonde grinned as she looked at her watch. "In about ten minutes. Your mom and your friend are both out there already."

Her smiled faltered slightly. "Can you do me a favour? My fiancé should be out there as well – you'll recognise him, he's not exactly stealthy just now with the crutches, broken arm and the croaky voice and these blue eyes, anyway – if you see him, can you...can you ask if he can come in on his own? It's just I haven't spoken to him in three weeks and...I know that his injuries are pretty bad and he's not been allowed to come see me because of all the machinery around me in case they had to get to me quickly and he was in the way but that's not a problem now, and I feel great so tell him I promise not to flat line or anything."

The young nurse's smile dropped from her face as she looked down at her watch again before looking up with a wide smile that looked way too forced. "Visiting time starts soon. I should go...but...are you sure you're feeling okay? Nothing is hurting? If you feel tired we can put visiting off until later, when you're feeling stronger."

Gabriella shook her head – even if she felt like crap there was no way she was missing this visiting session. She had been waiting for this for three weeks, and although she knew that he didn't blame her for what happened, she had to hear him say it and just see him and be with him again. Her pleading and crying in the ICU, begging the nurses to at least talk to him had fallen on death ears as according to her mom and Taylor using a phone could interfere with the machinery and as Troy had broken his right arm, communicating via letters from his side was a no go either. Talking via her mom and Taylor was not something that she had relished but it was a way of communicating with him, even if it wasn't personal. It was hard to say what had to be said via a go between and the fact that she could see him at long last, hold his hand, kiss him, wrap her arms around him and just be with him was not something that she was going to miss. "I feel great. Beyond great, actually. This has been the longest I have been without seeing Troy since I met him so there is no way I'm missing this."

"Okay," the nurse said as she took a deep breath and backed off. "Well...just remember, the most important thing is to relax and keep yourself well, okay? I'll just be out here and we'll let your...visitors in soon. I'm sorry...for the wait."

"It's okay, thank you for your help," Gabriella smiled as she looked at the nurse who wasn't even trying to smile anymore.

"You're welcome," she whispered as she went out. "I'm sorry."

Gabriella didn't even have time to process the oddities of the meeting as she took a deep breath and smoothed out her covers. She wished she could get up and look livelier, but she knew that would be stupid. She settled for running a hand through her hair, trying to smooth it before the pain the action caused her to stop in frustration. Instead she pinched her cheeks, trying to avoid the still healing cuts including the gash that was stitched that ran from her eye to her ear in order to attempt to look healthier and less pale. She didn't want him to worry, or to think her as too fragile to touch.

She bounced her leg and waited until she heard a noise outside her door. Her grin was wide before she even turned around only to falter slightly as she saw her mom and Taylor walk in slowly, yet no Troy. She pursed her lips, not wanting to seem rude but...they knew that this was going to be her and Troy's time together. "Um...hi?"

"Hey baby," her mother said with a small smile as she came over and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "How are you feeling?"

"Great!" Gabriella said with a smile. "I got out of ICU, so anyone can visit me now...you know?"

"It's such a pretty day out today," Taylor said with a sigh as she walked over to the window. "In a few weeks you will be allowed out of here. It is so much warmer here than it is in LA."

Gabriella could only blink in confusion at the small talk they were making. "Um...thank you both for coming but..."

"You look tired mi hija," her mom said as she caressed her cheek. "You should sleep, we'll come back tomorrow."

"Um, no," Gabriella said as she flicked her gaze from her mom to Taylor. "No. I'm great. I love that you guys have come, but...Troy's going to be here, so...I mean I don't want to be rude, but...you know?"

"Sweetie," Taylor began with a smile. "You really should rest. You need to get well."

Gabriella's happy mood ended at the tone and she shook her head in frustration as a horrible feeling started to settle in her stomach. "I don't need to rest, Taylor. I'm fine."

"You just got out of ICU today and we do not want to end up back in it. We'll come back tomorrow when you're less...hyped up."

Gabriella's brow furrowed as she looked at her best friend. "I'm fine, I'm not hyped up and I don't get what's going on. Just...you guys go and I'll see you both tomorrow. I'm just going to wait for Troy and then I promise, I'll be the good patient again and sleep and rest and all that other stuff."

"Gabriella, please rest now," her mom whispered softly, her eyes filling with tears that Gabriella didn't understand. "Everything will keep until tomorrow."

"Mom," she laughed. "Come on. I'm not a child and I am not tired. Everyone said I could see Troy today, and it's today and I still haven't seen him so if...if this is some joke, or something then please stop it now."

"Gabriella…"

"No, Mom! Does...does he blame me for the accident? Does he not want to see me? Why...why isn't he here?"

It was a real fear. The thoughts had invaded her thinking almost since the instant she woke up - she was driving, she hadn't been quick enough to swerve, she had made them go out and if he was too badly injured and it meant he couldn't play basketball, then it wasn't out with the realms of possibility that he could possibly hate her. She would understand, but she had to see him - even if it was just for him to yell at her.

"It's nothing like that, Gabs," Taylor said as she walked over. "Of course he would've wanted to be here and you know Troy would have never blamed you for anything. None of this is your fault."

Taylor's words had barely been spoken when Gabriella's eyes widened and her eyes filled with tears. No… Past tense. Past tense.

Past tense shouldn't have been used to describe something in the present so...

"Oh God," she gasped out as she shook her head desperately as realisation hit her like the force of the crash all over again. It all played out - the car ride home, her vain efforts at turning the car, them flipping over before being smashed into the barrier, the metal piercing her body, his cold skin under her fingers… "No. No. NO! Where is he? He has a broken leg, and a broken arm, and his throat was hurt because of the seat belt, and he was cut but he was in the room next door to me and he wanted...wanted to see me and now...now he can. Now he can see me, so...so you have to go and get him like you promised, Mom. You...you swore to me...everyday you swore to me that he was there…"

"Baby...I'm sorry...he didn't make it out of the car..."

"No!" Gabriella yelled as she moved the covers suddenly so she could stand. She was still shaky on her feet and she swayed dangerously as she clutched to the IV pole to stay upright. "You're a liar! You told me he came and saw me when I was unconscious! You gave me messages from him. You told me that he said he loved me...that...that he wanted me to think about the wedding and get well because he needed me to be well. You...you're lying because...because he would never leave me alone like that! Dead men don't plan weddings and vacations!"

"Gabriella, he broke his neck in the crash. His mom and dad...they took him home to Albuquerque to bury him a couple of weeks ago. I'm so...so sorry, baby."

"No!" Gabriella screamed, her tears falling unbidden as she struggled for breath as her chest felt like it was being ripped open. "You liar! You liar! You swore to me. You both...you both spoke to him and brought me messages and dead people don't give messages! Stop lying and tell me where he is!"

She was fighting, but in her broken heart she knew that it was true and cursed her naivety when she knew, she knew that he would have moved heaven and earth to have seen her at least once when she was awake. She knew she should have let go, but she fought for him...because he was supposed to be here, with her, forever.

"Gabriella..." Her mother's tear-stained voice was soft as she vaguely heard Taylor calling for a doctor from outside. "Gabriella – you have to understand, he would have wanted you to live and you would have let go if you had known! Baby…please, please understand that we had to do it. We had to."

"I...I trusted you!" she sobbed as she clutched her chest and gripped harder to the IV pole. It had to be impossible for anything to hurt as much as this - everything she had experienced in the last three weeks was nothing in comparison to this agony. It couldn't be possible for this to be real. "This isn't true...please, please tell me that you're lying, Mom. Please...please tell me he's next door. Please tell me he just hates...hates me and ran off. Please, please..."

"I'm so, so sorry," her mom whispered as she made to walk over to her but Gabriella jumped away from her touch. "Please, Gabriella...get back into bed, please baby. You can yell at me, but get back into bed."

"Don't! Don't ever...ever touch me!" she looked around and saw a doctor and the same blonde nurse standing in the room and suddenly she realised what the false smiles, and the apology was for earlier. Everyone knew. The doctors, the nurses, even the police who had never once mentioned Troy in their interviews, everyone knew. Everyone had watched as she had bought the lie. "I…trusted you. He's supposed…to be here. You promised me…and now…now…I'm here and he's…because of me…oh God…"

"Gabriella," the doctor's kind voice spoke softly as Gabriella back against the wall, clutching the IV pole desperately. "How about we get you into bed and we talk about this calmly? We don't want to rupture your stitches and end up in ICU again, do we?"

She couldn't even find the effort to be annoyed at his condescending tone as she desperately tried to find air in the room.

"He didn't feel anything," Taylor tried to reason softly. "He died on impact – he wasn't in any pain."

Gabriella shook her head and closed her eyes, the tears seeping out her eyes as she remembered being pinned to the car seat and looking at him, his head tilted towards her, his eyes closed as she had talked to him until the ambulance came. She could remember touching his arm, needing to feel him as she was sure she was drifting off to her own death, but she had fought for him because he was okay. It didn't make sense...

"His mom and dad wanted to wait, but we all knew you wouldn't be fit to travel for months. It wouldn't have been right. It…it was a beautiful funeral apparently, so beautiful," her mom added which only caused another strangled sob to escape from Gabriella's ever constricting throat. "We all...we all thought this was for the best so you can recover without having to worry. We didn't want to lose you both – no one wanted that."

"Troy...Troy wouldn't want you making yourself sick, Gabs."

"He would want you to be happy. You're still so young...you have so much to live for..."

"Lets get you back in bed..."

"At least it was quick..."

"...keep you safe..."

"...right thing..."

"...I'm so sor..."

The voices of the four people in the room jumbled together into one as the pain in her chest over-whelmed her, and the darkness that once had been so welcoming suffocated her now. She knew why in the past it had beckoned her – he was beckoning her, telling her to come to him, to follow him and she, like the stupid, naive, trusting little girl she was had ignored every instinct. Now she was left with an empty darkness, and an empty life.

Her last conscious thought as her legs gave way was that she prayed it was a dream.

* * *

Gabriella opened her heavy eyelids to find herself staring at the image of her mother who was lying asleep in the chair beside her bed. She was attached to machinery again, her heart monitor beating steadily in the background signifying that contrary to what the pain in her chest told her, a shattered heart still worked. The sound taunted her - each beat like another dagger that pierced her one more time, laughing at her pain, mocking her misery.

A movement from the chair alerted her that her mother was awake now, and whereas the woman's presence would have once caused comfort it now caused nothing but a different type of misery. The trust, the dependency, the bond between the two that had always been there had been severed in the most cruel way by her mother's betrayal, and Gabriella knew that she would never get that back again. In the blink of an eye she had lost the two most important people in her life, and she wasn't sure how she was supposed to deal with that.

"You're awake?"

Gabriella didn't respond as she merely tried to focus on something else in the room - the green curtains hanging by the window, the Degas print that was on the wall, the way the water cooler dripped slightly and the way you could just see a little light from the nurses station from under her door. All she concentrated on was these inconsequential things - she didn't look at her still bandaged left hand that held four broken fingers, fractured knuckles and numerous breakages in the hand and wrist, or the flowers on the table that included a red rose so similar to the one that he had brought to Stanford on Valentine's day and put in her hair before he proposed, and certainly not on the dark haired betrayer who was sat beside her bed. Anything of importance hurt, and if it hurt it meant it wasn't a dream, and all she wanted was for it to have happened in her own head.

"Gabriella."

"Go away," she whispered, keeping her eyes unfocused and her voice soft, not trusting it to go any louder without breaking.

"Let me explain," her mother begged. "Please."

Gabriella closed her eyes and tried to turn away, not wanting to fight, but not having any inclination to listen to anything just now.

"I know you think that what I did was unforgivable," she said quietly, seemingly not caring that all she was seeing was her daughter's back. "Maybe it was but one day you will understand that a mother will do anything to save their child."

Gabriella's eyes closed at the flash of pain that one line brought. Did her mother really think that Gabriella wanted to have another man's children?

"I…I didn't mean it like that, Gabi," her mom corrected quickly, perhaps hearing the sniff from her daughter. "I know right now that seems…that seems unlikely and you don't understand but…sometimes, sometimes a person will do anything, even something that is wrong, if it means they can save someone. I know you loved him…"

Gabriella screwed her eyes shut at the use of the past tense, as though it was expected that her feelings just ended the same time his life did. She tried to mentally force anything into her brain that would drown out her mother's words, but finding the only things that she could think about relating to him. The first time she had showed up at his campus to surprise him, the time she caught him watching The Young and the Restless on TV, the way he would always, always burn French toast but then eat it out of pettiness so she couldn't tease him, the way they had danced in the car park…

"I know that this hurts and that you're angry, but…we did it because we love you. Gabriella, baby…please, understand."

Her eyes were still closed, as she silently began reciting math problems in her head, anything to keep herself in the bubble she was trying to vainly hang onto. She vaguely felt the warm tear roll from her eye, over the bridge of her nose and fall onto the pillow but she couldn't open her eyes.

"He would want you to be happy, you know. He wouldn't want you to make yourself sick, or…or anything. He would understand why we did this, and he would want you to get better and to live a long and happy life. You're so young - this isn't the end for you."

She recognised that her mother's voice had a slightly desperate edge to it, but she didn't care. Her desire to block out the words, to hang onto the vain belief that it was a bad dream, everything else faded into oblivion as a wave of anger washed over her. Who the hell was her mother to say that? What the hell did she know about him, about them?

"Gabriella? Please, please baby - tell me what you're thinking. Yell at me if you want, just please talk to me."

"I don't want to fight," Gabriella muttered, not even attempting to look around. "Just leave me alone."

"I…" she heard her mother start to cry, and she wanted to feel bad about it, but she couldn't. "I…I…please, Gabriella. Just listen to me."

"Please just go," Gabriella whispered softly, her tears flowing silently down her cheeks. "Please."

"Gabi…"

"Gabriella," she corrected quietly, not intending to be cruel, but not being able to bear hearing the nickname he anyone, let alone someone who had done what her mother had done.

"I…I guess I'll just come back tomorrow. You're probably feeling very tired, it has been a big day," her mother sighed as she lay a hand on her back. Gabriella flinched under the touch but didn't raise her gaze. "Gabriella? I love you. I know you might not realise it, but what I did was for the best."

"You wrote fiction that Dan Brown would be proud of, complete with ghosts talking about weddings, and phantom visits where crutches were in the way of machinery, and pretend recuperation periods, and…and…additions to our honeymoon because of things doctors had told him and…and…you think that's for the best? He was supposed to be here and you promised me he was here. You promised, mom and you lied. You looked me in the eye and lied to me repeatedly and worse than that…it wasn't just one lie, it was hundreds of them. You read letters meant for him, only him and you exploited my feelings, my weaknesses, my love for him for your own gain. I trusted you and you just…"

"I did what I did to keep you alive," her mother said softly. "I would do it again. I know that you hate me for it, but I don't care. All I care about is that you're here to hate me for it, and I know you are smart enough to understand this. Troy would not want his death to be the end of your life. You have so much ahead in your life - you are twenty-one years old, Gabriella. You have years to heal, and one day…one day you will understand why I did this. Life isn't a fairytale - there isn't always Once Upon A Time's and Happily Ever Afters' and sometimes you have to do things that are hard. Sometimes bad things happen to good people. Sometimes you have to lie and hurt someone to save them. I don't mind being the villain of this piece because you are alive, and that is the most important thing in the world to me."

Getting no response from Gabriella, her mother continued. "I know you loved him, and he loved you but he died and you…you lived! That's what you have to remember. One day when you are holding your own daughter, and I know you don't want to think about it, but it will happen - that day you will be glad that you're still alive to do that."

Gabriella didn't trust herself to speak, so she closed her eyes shut and silently begged God or anyone else to please make it stop. To make her mother stop talking, to make the agonising pain in her chest stop, to either take her back to the day it had happened, or to kill her instead.

"I'll never thank you for this," she forced out. "I will never forgive you for this. Now leave. Please, Mom. Please just go. I don't want to hear anymore. Please just leave me alone."

"I'm sorry that he died, baby…" her mom said softly. "He was a great guy, and I know he made you happy and it was a terrible, terrible thing that happened to him, to you. I promise it does get easier."

Gabriella wanted to scream at the patronising phrasing - how on earth would her mom know that? Gabriella's dad had died when Gabriella was twelve, but he and her mom had been divorced at the time and barely spoke to each other apart from false pleasantries in front of their daughter. How could it even be considered the same?

"I love you, Gabi."

Gabriella didn't even blink in response as she kept her eyes closed.

She heard shuffling and the door close and after a few moments of silence she allowed her eyes to open, taking in the empty room. She could hear the muffled talking from outside but didn't even attempt at focusing on what was getting said as she lay, trying to keep her mind blank as the steady beeping of the monitor in the background taunted her again, reminding her that this was her life now - her, alone, an empty bed and a broken heart that was good for nothing but keeping her alive in a worthless life that she wish she didn't have to live anymore.

* * *

Gabriella got home a little before midnight. She had left Taylor, Ryan and Kelsi at the club citing a headache and a stomach bug as the reason for her early departure, but they all knew otherwise. She had a pretty good night - she had laughed and smiled and danced and for the most part it had been fun. She was glad that Taylor had made her go.

She kicked her shoes off and walked over to the sofa and laid her head back against the back, letting the stillness of the apartment soothe her. When it was dark and quiet like this she didn't have to think. There were no expectations to meet, no deadlines, no social criteria to fill - it was just her having time to not think.

All too soon though the phone rang and she clenched her eyes closed as her new answer-phone message picked up.

"Hi, this is Gabriella - I'm not in right now but leave a message and I'll call you back."

BEEP

"Gabi…Gabriella, hi! I just wanted to call and wish you a happy birthday, baby. I know you were going out with Taylor tonight but I figured you wouldn't be out too late and I was hoping to catch you. Are…are you there? No…I guess, I guess not. I'll call you tomorrow, okay? Bye baby. I love you."

She shook her head and ignored the message. So much had changed in the last eight months and three days. Eight months and four days ago she had hugged her mom when the doctor had told her she could leave ICU as her mom had told her that Troy had almost burst into tears at the news he could see her again. Eight months and four days ago she had been so sure of what her future entailed.

Eight months and four days ago she would have never purposefully ignored a call from her mother because she just didn't know what to say to her anymore.

What a difference a day makes.

She smiled ruefully as she stood up and deleted the message, promising to call her and make sure she was alright soon, before she walked into the room and pulled the comforter back, taking the shirt out and clasping the name desperately before turning it away from her so she could go back to pretending that it was really her shirt and always had been. She walked from the bedroom, forcing the smile on her face as she passed the mirror again before stopping in front of the sink, washing the mask off and looking back at her reflection. The scar was visible, the shortness of her hair a side effect of the 'make-over' Taylor had insisted she had at Christmas as a sign that she was moving on, the painted smile no longer visible and the dull eyes no longer hidden. It was just her and she took a deep breath, letting the oxygen of finally not having to play the part wash over her.

Ms Darbus would be proud of her dedication to the arts.

"Tomorrow," she whispered to her and ran a hand over her reflection. "Tomorrow will be the day it stops hurting. Tomorrow is the day that it won't be an act."

Citing the promise to herself that she made every night she turned the light and walked to the bed, sliding into the shirt before going under the covers, laying on her side and closing her eyes. The other side of the bed empty, no arms around her waist, no kisses to her neck, or warm breath on her ear…but as she lay there, wrapping her own arms around herself, for a split second, she could almost pretend there was, and in that split second, she smiled.

* * *

_Hold on, baby you're losing it__  
The water's high and you're jumping into it,  
And letting go, and no one knows...  
That you cry, but you don't tell anyone,  
That you might not be the golden one.  
And you're tied together with a smile,  
But you're coming undone…  
-Taylor Swift-Tied Together With A Smile-_

* * *

_AN - I hope you guys enjoyed and it wasn't too confusing. For how I wanted to finish off this fic I had to show the flashbacks and how Gabriella's life is a few months on so I could go from there in the next part. I know this chapter is pretty heavy going all the way through, but it kinda had to be.  
_


	6. The Beginning Of Forever

_The Beginning of Forever_

_AN- I am so sorry for the delay. You would not believe how busy I have been at work which, considering this chapter was beyond evil to write, did not help speed things up. Thank you so much for your reviews on the last chapter. This...is not a fun chapter (I know, surprising, right?;)) but considering what it's about, it kinda had to go like that. I really hope you enjoy and please, let me know what you think._

_

* * *

_

_I believe that we were born to find each other and to be together forever. I know I was supposed to die that day but I didn't. I have to believe that whatever is controlling us will understand that I can't live without you – I can survive without you, but I can't live without you. I have to believe that the people who love me will understand that this is the only thing I can do._

* * *

The shoes had been fired into the nearest box as she had entered her apartment, her purse, jacket and keys sat on the counter as she closed the door and shut her eyes in response. This was not the way that Gabriella had anticipated spending the night and a part of her was so angry with Taylor for trying to trick her like that. Somehow an agreement to meet Taylor for a drink and dinner had turned into a blind-date.

She gave a small scream in frustration as she resisted the urge to call Taylor and yell at her for doing that. She knew that Taylor's actions were done with the best intentions, but that didn't matter. Her last night was ruined – she had wanted to spend the night having fun with her friend, and instead she was making excuses as to why she couldn't stay to guy who seemed baffled as to what was going on.

It was perhaps a good job that she wouldn't speak to Taylor again...an argument was the absolute last thing she wanted – she had done too much fighting in the last fourteen months and she was tired of it.

She opened her eyes and went out the door until she reached the elevator. Her bare feet curled underneath her in reaction to the cool surface, but she found the sensation almost exhilarating. It was amazing how even the littlest things had felt amazing since she had made her decision to leave...not that anyone would ever understand what that felt like.

She wasn't depressed – it wasn't as simple as that. There were no magic pills, or cures, or words that could make it all better. She could laugh, and smile and that was fine, but it wasn't real. She was...existing. She could say the right things, and smile at the right times but she couldn't remember the last time that she had genuinely felt like herself until this moment.

The irony was, of course, that it would be this moment, this last couple of weeks, this act that would make the most sense to her, but make the least sense to everyone else.

She knew what she was doing was unforgiveable. She knew she was going to hurt the people she loved and she knew that was she was doing was wrong, yet she couldn't bring herself to stop.

It was destiny. Fate.

It was the only thing that made sense anymore.

She had once read a quote from Oscar Wilde once that told how 'to live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.' And at the time she hadn't really understood the difference between living and surviving – surely they were the same thing? The problem was, at that point, she had been living. She had everything she had ever dreamed about in her grasp and she was happy but when she had lost all that, the difference became stark – surviving, getting through a day without feeling anything properly, looking forward to the dreams that would simultaneously heal and torture her while she slept, yet despite the pain every morning brought after one, she still preferred them than her normal life where facades and fake smiles were the norm.

Living was easy and surviving was what was hard.

She had no idea how anyone could handle it. Perhaps if you didn't know how good life could be you could get through it – but to know how good it should be and to miss it? It was impossible. You could smile, and laugh, and try so hard to be happy but in the end there would always be something missing. Some part of you that was absent.

What didn't kill you made you stronger.

Survival of the fittest.

Life goes on.

All the sayings, all the well worked quotes, all the 'pep-talks' failed to mention the fact that it was all a load of crap. Good intentions, effort, strength could only do so much.

She sighed as she looked out towards the city, letting the warm breeze wash over her and her anger at Taylor eke away in the wind.

She really loved this apartment but she had to leave and this...this was the right time, the right decision.

The only decision and although she should feel sad, it was impossible for her to do it and again, she felt the broad smile come over her face and the tingles that were a mixture of anticipation and excitement dance in her stomach. She hadn't felt like this in fourteen months but here, now...that torturous time was over. The loneliness, the ache she carried around with her, the incompleteness was going to go, nothing more than a temporary blip, a glitch in the plan.

Nothing was forever.

Apart from her and him.

She sat down on the roof of their building and sighed as she looked out at the orange glow in the sky. It was a beautiful night.

They always had something with roofs and heights. There was something about being off the ground that did things to them, and Gabriella wasn't sure why she hadn't realised it before. They met in the mountains, they sang together on a stage, she fell in love with him on a balcony, he carved their initials on a tree, he dropped out of a tree to propose and they spent countless nights on the roof of their building once they moved in watching the sunset, or studying, or having dinner. It wasn't private, and it certainly wasn't the most romantic or comfortable setting, but it was theirs for the most part and that was all that mattered. Occasionally she would come up to study and the old woman from one of the apartments below them would be watering some plants, or other random people like that, but for the most part it had been theirs.

Leaving was always going to be difficult, but she knew that she couldn't really say goodbye without spending some time here tonight. Some of her happiest memories took place on this roof and she hadn't spent nearly enough time reliving them. There was no time like the present for that though...

* * *

"_Troy! Please can I open my eyes?" she whined as he sat her down, manoeuvring her every so often as he rushed about. "I promise I'll be surprised…"_

"_Um, no..." he said slowly as she felt him drop down beside her. "It's your birthday present and you have to be surprised, and not just pretend surprised, but properly surprised because I was a lousy boyfriend and was out of town for your birthday."_

"_You had a game," she said softly, grasping vainly for his hand whilst keeping her eyes closed so as not to ruin the surprise. "You know it doesn't bother me."_

"_It bothers me though," he said as he stood and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Okay when I go out the door you can open your eyes, okay?"_

"_You know," she said feigning annoyance. "God created gift bags and wrapping paper to avoid these sorts of moment."_

_He leant over and kissed her lips before pulling back, rubbing her hands with his for a second. "It's a good surprise, I promise."_

"_Do I get a clue?"_

"_Nope," he said as she felt him stand and heard him pick something up. "I'll see you in a couple of minutes."_

_As soon as she heard the door closed she waited a moment and called out loudly. "I'm uncovering my eyes now - if there's any reason I shouldn't, now would be a good time to tell me."_

"_Uncover them!" he called back. "Then bring me my shirt when you answer the door. I swear this building's AC is trashed because it's freezing out here!"_

_She giggled as she stood up, looking around to see if there was anything suspicious, only to find nothing. She waited a moment before walking over to the door, where there was a faint knock._

"_Who is it?"_

"_The Easter Bunny," his un-amused voice echoed back._

"_Do you have certification, Mr Bunny because my boyfriend is due home soon and he might not like me letting strangers in the apartment?" she asked back in a faux serious tone as she looked through the peephole to see him standing there in just his pants and wife beater. "Why didn't you put a shirt on before you went out?"_

"_Are you checking me out via the peep hole?" he asked as he brought his face closer to the door before slamming his hand over it, darkening her view. "Cause that's cheating."_

_She pouted as she unlocked the door and opened it just wide enough to peek an eye out. "You didn't specify that. Your only requirement was that I didn't peek when you were in the apartment."_

"_Well...new rule. No checking me out when there's a door separating us. Actually – revised rule, no checking me out at all because it's just going to get me distracted...again."_

"_You have more willpower than that, Wildcat," she purred, causing his eyes to close in reaction before he opened them again. she had missed this while he was away and now that she was back it was like the pair of them were in over-drive to make up for lost time._

"_Not funny, Montez," he said with a shake of his head. "You have to be nice."_

"_I can be nice..."_

"_If you don't open the door properly than you don't get your presents," he bargained, causing her to purse her lips in contemplation. Seeing that she wasn't yet swayed he reached behind his back and produced a flower that he presented her with. She smiled as she recognised it as being similar to the one he had put on her corsage for prom a few years earlier. She bit her lip as she accepted it with a smile, opening the door for him, only to squeak in surprise as he pulled her out it, grabbing the shirt she was holding whilst pushing her against the wall with his other hand. "Happy twentieth birthday, baby."_

"_Thank you," she smiled as he closed the door, and immediately caged her against the wall. "Although I'm curious as to why you have kidnapped me from our apartment?"_

_He bit his lip to keep the smirk off his face. "Hmmm, what possible reason could I have?"_

_Before she could reply he had grabbed her hand and began running down the hallway with her towards the elevator. He grinned at her as he pulled her inside and hit for the top floor. They made the journey in silence before the doors opened onto the rooftop that she normally spent time on studying, only to reveal a picnic sitting laid out, complete with a covered birthday cake and presents. She was speechless as he leant into her ear and spoke._

"_See, I had to pick you up at the door for it to be a proper date and although I was, admittedly, slightly distracted earlier, I still wanted to do it properly."_

"_You did this for me?" she whispered as she looked around, the setting sun casting a perfect glow on the setting. "Thank you."_

_He pressed his lips to her ear as his arms tightened around her. "I was going to take you somewhere nice, but...I haven't seen you in a week and it may be selfish, but I don't want to share," every word of his statement was accompanied by either a kiss or a squeeze. "I'll do the big dinner thing for Valentine's Day but tonight I just want it to be us at our own pace, not having to deal with waiters checking you out, or concentrating on not ending up wrapped round a road sign because I am trying so hard to concentrate on not kissing you on the way home."_

"_This..." she spun around so she could look at him. "This is so much better than a big dinner. This is perfect," she closed her eyes and leant her head against his chest, cuddling close. "Thank you so much."_

_He pulled back slightly as he began shepherding her over to their dinner. "Well, you say it's perfect – but obviously your standards are low because the food is all cold and it's a little chillier than I planned on account of us getting...let's just say distracted...before."_

_She giggled as she got pulled into his arms and planted a kiss on the exposed skin on his neck. "Distracted is a good word. I see cake, and I am sure somewhere in that icebox is some chocolate of some kind and we have a sunset, and a beautiful night and, we're together, so for me...this is perfect."_

"_I love you." He closed his eyes and pressed his lips to hers. "You leave me lots of scope to improve on birthday celebrations whilst making me feel like I hit it out the park with the date we're on whether it's just us chilling out or away somewhere swanky where we are always getting the odd looks for mispronouncing the menu and moving our chairs closer."_

_She burst out laughing at his comment, causing him to grin more. "In fairness, I think they had spelling error on the menu because that was just...no one can pronounce words like that!"_

"_Which is why, when we go to Europe we are only eating in English speaking restaurants so we don't look like dumb tourists."_

"_But we will be dumb tourists," she teased as she looked up._

"_At least we have our looks, I guess," he sighed dramatically, causing her to giggle again. "Seriously though, Gabi – I promise next year's birthday will be kickass and actually on your birthday, and not a day later."_

_She stroked his cheek before pushing his hair off his face. "You are planning an event a year down the line..."_

"_Well...yeah," he said with a scowl as he lifted her hand up and pointed out the promise he had given her at Christmas that was on her finger. "The ring kinda says that it's acceptable to plan events for the future, right?"_

_She bit her lip and nodded as she kissed him gently. "I think so."_

"_Me too," he murmured as he pulled her hips closer, trying to capture her lips again only for her to pull back with a smirk as she began dancing our of his grasp over towards the food. "Baby...come back until I finish kissing you."_

"_Nope, because you, Mr Bolton, won't be happy with just kissing as you so aptly demonstrated a few hours ago when you came home," she chided playfully before dropping down on the blanket. "Come and eat with me."_

"_I swear, one of these days I am going to convince you that kissing me is preferable to chocolate covered strawberries..." he mumbled as he looked down at her excited face as she grinned up at him._

"_You have forever to convince me of that improbable fact, Wildcat," she giggled as she stretched her arm out for him, pulling him down beside her as she leant close and kissed his cheek before leaning against his shoulder. "If it's any consolation, kissing you is a close second."_

_He rolled his eyes, causing her to laugh as he reached around and swooped at the fruit she was holding and scoffed it down. "I regret the day I made that a picnic staple instead of just making out with you like any self respecting teenage boy would have done."_

_She nudged him slightly, sticking her lower lip out in a pout as she scooted away, clutching the bowl with her as she went. "Just for that – you don't get any strawberries and we're not making out either."_

_His eyes sparkled then as he began crawling over towards her. "Ah, you say that now but I have the cake, and your presents over here beside me..."_

"_Meh – as if I could be so easily swayed," she scoffed dramatically, throwing in a hair flip as she did so. "I am perfectly content over here."_

"_What if I said one of those presents held tickets to a certain theme park that someone has wanted to visit since we moved to California?"_

_Gabriella almost squeaked as she practically launched herself at him. Somehow though, at the last moment she was able to hold back her excitement as she pretended her movement forward had been planned as she adjusted in the air and instead fell dramatically onto her elbow in what she hoped looked like a nonchalant gesture. His knowing smirk told her that he wasn't fooled, but she could care less at this stage. She pretended to ponder before she reached into the bowl and offered him a strawberry. "Truce?"_

"_As if I could be so easily swayed," he repeated back to her with a grin as he shook his head, causing her to roll her eyes as she sat the bowl down and began crawling over to him. _

_She leant in and pressed her lips to his, her hands finding his collar and hair, pulling him closer as his own found her waist so he could pull her even closer. She pulled back breathlessly, her lips still against his as she whispered. "Truce?"_

"_I'm open to negotiations," he replied softly before attaching their lips again, the strawberries, cake and Disney World tickets forgotten as they fell back on the blanket._

* * *

When Gabriella had first laid eyes on her current apartment she would be lying if she said she had loved it. She and Troy had lost a day of apartment hunting as they had pretty much ended up stuck in his room all day, and it was left until the following weekend when they got around to looking at actual properties instead of just ads. The first apartment they had looked at had been perfect – it was large, airy, had the most beautiful view over the park, the neighbours were nice and there was good parking. It was perfect, but, unfortunately, it was too perfect for them and the price was out of range for two students to afford so, sensing Troy's disappointment she had picked an imaginary flaw and pretended that she couldn't have been happy there anyway and instead dragged him towards the more realistic apartments a few blocks down where the rooms weren't so roomy, and the view wasn't so impressive, and waited until she saw something click with him. Six apartments later, and it happened. They had walked into this building and the elevator was getting maintained which meant they had to walk the seven flights of stairs, which immediately put them both off, and half way up a screaming child chased his brother as he clutched a baseball glove and bat barged past them. Getting to their floor, the pair of them had shared a look wondering why they were wasting their time, but before they could say anything out loud, the apartment opened and as they stepped in, Gabriella could see Troy smile as he looked around. She didn't really see what he saw right away – for her the place was too dark and miserable and as she looked around she was finding it hard to see what it could be until he stood behind her, wrapped his arm around her waist, pressed his lips to her ear and whispered – 'this could be our home'.

She didn't even bother looking round the rest of the apartment as she immediately spun in his arms and nodded yes.

They moved in together three weeks later and Gabriella had spent her free time before college started back with a paint brush in her hand as she attempted to make the apartment their home. It hadn't been easy – Troy's pre-season schedule was brutal and as a result she had to enforce a curfew of 7 PM with the decorating equipment, in fear that he would come home and want to spend hours decorating when he should be resting.

Sitting on the kitchen counter now as she looked into the lounge she could still remember every single attempt he made to 'break curfew' in that regard, which had resulted in desperate measures as he had began painting at 4am, citing it was a different day so the rule didn't apply and her hiding the paint on the roof so he couldn't find it. she smiled in memory as she thought of how the three decorating weeks had resulted in more petty tricks and underhanded scheming by the pair of them than at any other time in their relationship – she would lure him back to bed by any powers of seduction she could get him to succumb to and he would, in turn, distract her with dragging her into another room where he would have a picnic set up, or remove a dessert from the fridge that he had stashed, or would produce a flower he had hidden making it impossible for her to even feign being mad at him. He was actually far sneakier and more conniving than anyone would ever give him credit for.

Their home had eventually been finished – of course not without the odd disaster. There was the dent in the wall from the ill-fated Thanksgiving football throwing lesson that Troy had tried to give her. Underneath the beanbag in the lounge there was a stain from when she knocked over a bottle of dark nail varnish whilst engrossed in the latest Grey's Anatomy love triangle. He of course had never found out about it because he had a bad habit of vacuuming around objects when he cleaned up...

Then of course there was the busted light fitting that had been caused by him accidentally tossing a basketball too high in the air. He had attempted to blame her on it on account of it being her that had distracted him, but she refused to be swayed...

She sighed as she looked down at the phone in her hand and took a deep breath. She wished she could just sit and reminisce about their time together and let everything else work itself out, but she knew she couldn't do that. She didn't want to call her mom, but she knew she had to. They had spoken on the phone recently, but their last face to face meeting had been somewhat of a disaster and although it wasn't mentioned anymore, she didn't want any part of that day to still be lingering after tonight.

* * *

_She had been hoping the day would pass without comment. It was always going to be difficult considering, but she had got through his birthday, her birthday, Christmas and New Year so she had no reason to believe that she couldn't get past Valentine's Day. Sure, it was a year since he had proposed but she was trying hard not to dwell on it. She had avoided going to class, knowing the sight of the tree and the fountain and the happy couples around her would tip her over the edge, so she had went and fled to a coffee shop miles away from anyone who would possibly know her or would have read the 'tragic story' in the newspaper from the trial coverage. She couldn't run all day though and after four hours spent avoiding doing anything remotely like thinking, she found herself on her way home leaning against the window of a bus. _

_She had got home to the empty apartment and walked in; her purse and jacket dropped by the door as she walked over to the sofa and sat down. She wouldn't cry as much as she wanted to – today had been the best day of her life, and although it tore her apart, she didn't want to spoil the memory of that day with breaking down on its anniversary. She could remember the year previous like it was yesterday, his nervousness, her cluelessness and the most perfect proposal. She looked down at her left hand and missed the ring that was supposed to adorn her finger. Her fingers itched to put it on where it deserved, but she knew that if she put it on again she would never take it off and she had promised her mom and everyone that she...that she would do this for them. Everything was for them._

_She was knocked out of her reverie by the sound of someone knocking on her apartment's door. She was going to ignore it, but another knock, followed by another caused her to stand and trudge over to open it, only to find her mother standing there for the first time since New Year's. Instinctively she stood aside to let her in. As many fake smiles as she had directed at people in the past, she had no inclination to give one to her mom._

"_Hi, Mom."_

"_Hi Gabi," her mom began brightly before flinching slightly and correcting herself. "Gabriella."_

_Gabriella nodded in appreciation of the correction as she closed the door and shifted awkwardly as she watched her mom try and analyse her home – as though she were looking for evidence, or signs that Gabriella wasn't doing something right._

"_How are you feeling?"_

_Gabriella's eyes flicked open at the inane question - how was she supposed to answer that? What was the suitable response?'Hey Mom, I'm awesome – I got engaged a year ago today to the guy you impersonated for three weeks when in reality he was in a hole in the ground a thousand miles away.' "I'm feeling okay…"_

"_Okay," her mom breathed as she brought her gaze up to the mantle that used to hold multiple picture frames, but which was now empty. Gabriella saw the smile flicker over her mom's face and felt her anger rise before she reminded herself that it wasn't worth it. No one ever understood before, so they wouldn't understand now. "Taylor was telling me that you both went out for your birthday along with Ryan and Kelsi. She said you had fun."_

"_Yeah…" she responded. Her mom didn't need to know that the idea of fun today was different than it had been a year ago. She didn't need to know that she had been plotting her escape before they even left the apartment and she certainly didn't need to know that it was almost as hard to talk to her best friend now as it was to talk to her own mother. Too much had happened and although Gabriella was trying to be the better person, she just couldn't pretend that everything was okay. "It was nice of Taylor…"_

"_I thought you might have dropped round…"_

"_I've been busy with school," she lied as she looked down. "Last year and all…"_

_Isabella Montez sighed and nodded as she walked over to the bulletin board and studied it before turning back and sitting on the sofa. Gabriella closed her eyes and prayed for her mother to leave, but Isabella seemed more than happy to sit there and psychoanalyse her daughter._

"_How are things with Doctor Suarez?"_

"_I talk, she listens and tells me to talk some more, then I leave and the pattern continues."_

"_I noticed that you still haven't taken the map…"_

_Gabriella narrowed her eyes as she glared at her mother, who seemed to shrink back in response at her daughter's silent accusation. _

"_What?"_

"_I just…you aren't going to go on the trip now and it seems…"_

"_It seems like I am keeping it up because of what it represents. It's the same as people having a photo of a beach, or a pin-up, or a big house – it's a dream, it doesn't mean anything." She growled lowly as she looked at her mom. "Look around - no photos, no necklace, no ring. I've done it all to make you happy so please, trust me, okay?"_

"_It's not about making me happy, Gabriella," her mom said quietly as she met Gabriella's eye. "It's about making you happy. Why don't you come live with me? I'll rent an apartment near Stanford and you can spend your last few months there and then once you graduate we'll go trav…"_

"_No," Gabriella cut her off, taking a deep breath and shaking her head resolutely as she walked towards the kitchen, trying to signal that the conversation was done. Every time they spoke the suggestion of Gabriella moving out to live with her mom, or with Taylor got broached and Gabriella had tried every way of letting them know that it wouldn't happen. She had tried to be nice, she had tried to be blunt and she had tried yelling and being silent, but no matter how many times she said no, they just didn't listen. "Just…no."_

"_I don't like you living here on your own. Living with a ghost isn't helping you heal."_

_Her mom's voice was quiet, but Gabriella heard and her face contorted into a snarl at the audacity of her mother. "Yeah well, living with someone I can't trust wouldn't exactly be conducive to the healing process either, would it?"_

"_Gabi…"_

"_Gabriella," she corrected again, her back still to her mother. "I'm not fighting with you over this, Mom. Please just respect my decisions for once." She took a deep breath before she forced a smile on her face. "Would you like some coffee or something cold to drink? I guess if you want we could order some food in or something..."_

"_I'm not letting you wish away your life, Gabriella. Do not expect me to watch you waste away pining for something that is gone forever."_

"_I might have tea in the cupboards somewhere," Gabriella babbled as mentally she tried to block out her mom. She didn't want to fight; she didn't want to argue again. She hated fighting with her mom and she knew that after every discussion like this the already fractured relationship disintegrated that little bit more. "Although it might only be fruit stuff now that I think about it…"_

"_Taunting yourself with what could have been is not the way to live your life."_

_Counting to ten, Gabriella pulled a package from the cupboard and forced a smile on her face. "Here it is. Raspberry leaf tea - sorry, I know it's not very exciting but I can chill it for you if you would like that as opposed to coffee or a soft-drink. Did you know that Taylor was only drinking green-tea now? I might need to try that…"_

"_How do you expect to heal if you are looking at that every day? For crying out loud, Gabriella – is this all you want from your life? You didn't die in that car!"_

_Gabriella fought against the tears, her own hair shielding her as she gave up trying to control herself. Why was her mother doing this to her? Hadn't she done enough? The time on the clock taunting her as she discreetly wiped her eyes before turning back; her eyes focused as she marched past her mother and went to the bulletin board. She reached up and ripped the map down, feeling something break as she did so. She hadn't been ready to do that, but she knew she had to if she wanted to get any peace from the woman she couldn't even bear to look at. _

_As the little push pins fell from the locations, and the coloured post-its that had contained their travel and accommodation ideas fell like confetti Gabriella looked up at her mother, holding the torn papers in her hand and offered her a fake smile. "Happy now? There's no map, no post-it notes, no route, nothing – he's all gone now. Are you happy now? Does that prove to you that I am trying hard enough so that you all will finally leave me alone or do I need to do something else?"_

"_Gabi..."_

"_Gabriella."_

"_Gabriella," Isabella began slowly as she reached up and wiped a tear that had seeped from Gabriella's eyes, as Gabriella struggled to keep her lower lip from trembling some more. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to push it's just…"_

"_You can't help yourself. I get it. It's fine."_

"_No, I'm really sorry..."_

"_Yeah, you're always sorry after the fact, Mom. Just forget about it. It doesn't matter just..." she trailed off as she looked around. "I guess you don't want anything to drink so I'll let you go," Gabriella said as she pulled away from her mother's touch, her hands balling in fists around her torn map. "I'm fine mom, thanks for coming."_

"_I broke you, didn't I?" Isabella whispered as she looked at her daughter, her own eyes filling with tears. "I keep breaking you by making you do this too quickly and I don't know how to put you back together. I just…I try and compare it to when your dad left us but it's not the same, is it? I just want you to be happy, baby. I want…I want to take this pain from you, somehow and the only way I know is to get you away from all of this – all of the memories, all of the sadness and pain. I wish I could wave a magic wand and make you forget everything, but I can't so I'm just trying to make it easier..."_

"_I don't want to forget. Why can't any of you understand that?" Gabriella responded, causing her mom to shake her head sadly. "I'm fine."_

"_You're not. I was wrong to do what I did to you, Gabriella," she took a deep breath as Gabriella kept her gaze steady and nodded, willing to agree with that. "I don't think I've handled one bit of this properly. Making you go to Dr Suarez, making you take the pictures down, making you…making you hurt more. I'm sorry."_

"_It's fine," Gabriella whispered, them both knowing that it wasn't fine, but neither willing to go into that at that moment in time. "What doesn't kill us makes us stronger, right?"_

"_Are you feeling stronger?"_

"_I'm not dead, so I must be stronger," Gabriella said as she dropped her gaze._

_They stood in silence for a few moments before her mother began backing towards the door. "I guess…I guess I better go. I'm going to Denver for a few months. I'm supposed to leave in the middle of March but if you want me to stay I can..."_

"_You should go. You like Denver," Gabriella said as she met her mom's gaze. "Have a safe trip and I'll see you when you get back."_

"_Oh...okay then. I guess...I guess I'll see you before I go, okay?"_

_Gabriella nodded dully and briefly thought about asking her mom to stay, to try and rebuild some fences, to try and end the awkwardness, before deciding against it._

"_Gabi?" Gabriella's gaze lifted, but before she had an opportunity to correct her mother, Isabella had continued. "Happy Valentine's Day, baby."_

_As her mother left, Gabriella was stood there holding the torn pieces of her map, of her future in her hand while the notes, and jokes and sketches he had made were littered around her feet in pieces. As she looked at the final remnants of the future they had dreamed about she found herself dropping down to her knees and sobbing as she clutched the small pieces of paper desperately as the bitter realisation struck her that her good intentions about not crying today meant nothing anymore._

_

* * *

_

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to shake the memory. It didn't change anything and she wouldn't dwell on what could have beens and what shouldn't have beens. The past was in the past and nothing could change that, and for the first time in over a year she had control over her own future, so what was the point in dwelling on something that couldn't be changed. With that idea in mind, she shakily began dialling the phone and tried to calm her breathing as opposing parts of her simultaneously begged for no answer and for it to be answered quickly. She was torn over a lot of things – apart from completing everything she had to do tonight.

"Hello?"

"Hi...hi, Mom?"

"Gabriella!" her mom's voice was ecstatic and Gabriella smiled at the sound. "Baby, hi! How are you doing? Is everything okay?"

"Mom, I'm fine," she giggled as she leant back and ran her hand over the counter, the ring on her left hand glittering slightly against her scarred finger. "I just wanted to call and see how you are?"

"I...I'm good, great actually. I'm still in Denver – that contract that I told you about did not go through as smoothly as it was supposed to, but that's okay."

"Yeah, I'm glad that you're doing great," she said softly, genuinely. She loved her mom despite the problems they had and, she wanted her to be happy. "How are things with Thomas?"

She could almost see her mom's blush from over the phone, and she giggled softly at the thought. Thomas Morgan was a man who her mother had been having a relationship with since Gabriella's freshman year at college and although her mother always tried to play it off as a 'friendship' as opposed to anything else, Gabriella and Troy had both known that her mom was crazy about the divorcee and his two teenage boys.

"We...he's just...he's just wonderful. He came out to surprise me and...I don't know. Sometimes I think he believes we're twenty instead of nearly fifty...some of his ideas are..." she trailed off, and Gabriella knew that she was silently listing some of the things they had done together. "He thinks we should move in together when I get back, but I like my independence. I'm not sure if I would want to change things..."

"Mom...he's a nice guy who loves you and his kids seem to like you too," Gabriella argued. She wanted her mom to have someone if she could, and she knew that Thomas and his family would be good for her. "Life is way too short to have regrets about things as big as this. Don't be scared of doing something risky. You...you deserve someone to come home to, someone who makes you happy. Everyone...everyone deserves that."

There was an uncomfortable pause on the other end of the line before her mom spoke again. "Why do I get the feeling like this is a conversation that should be going the other way? Instead if I remember correctly, I got told after you had already been living with Troy for a month and my input wasn't required."

Gabriella just smiled as she gnawed on her lower lip. "That was different. I knew it was right and it was only a matter of time. Sure, it maybe happened a little quicker than Troy or I expected, but we both knew it was just meant to happen like that."

She bit down on her lip as she realised that it was the first time she had actually given her mom more than a one line answer about Troy since the accident.

"Gabriella? Are you okay? Taylor says that you have been doing so great recently. In fact she said that you have been amazing – that you've been really happy."

She almost rolled her eyes. Taylor and her mom had bonded over their duplicity at the hospital and since Taylor had insisted on babysitting Gabriella, she had provided her mom with constant 'status' reports that allowed the older Montez to keep up to date on what aspects of her daughter's life that she was now less privy to due to the strain that the relationship was under. It wasn't that Gabriella wanted to have such a bad relationship with her mother; she just didn't know how to act around someone she no longer trusted.

"I'm good, actually. Better than good. Taylor's right – I have been happy." She didn't mention the reason why she was so happy was because she had worked out what she had to do or any great details to her statement. The what's and why's weren't important in the grand scheme of things – she just wanted Taylor and her mom to remember her as being happy, not remember her as being angry with them.

"That's great," her mom said, trailing off leaving the all too familiar awkwardness between them. Neither of them really knew what to say to each other anymore – Gabriella couldn't talk to her about anything substantial and her mom just didn't want to risk upsetting her more after what had happened the last time she had come to the apartment. They had met up since then, but usually for nothing more than a quick coffee and although they had brief phone conversations, they no longer had the relationship they had both valued so much. Gabriella didn't want it to end like that though – she didn't want those questions and tension hanging over anything. She wanted everyone to have a clean slate.

"Um...I just...I just wanted to call to tell you that these last few days, I've been happier than I've been in months. I...I know that you've been...concerned, so I wanted to let you know that I think I worked some stuff out. I just...I'm tired of hurting all the time, so I have to move on and to do that I have to make things right with us," she took a deep breath before she continued. "I don't forgive you for what you did Mom, but I do understand why you did it and...those mistakes you made in those three weeks don't erase the fact that until that point you were always the best mom..."

"I...I'm glad you realised that it's time to move on, baby. Troy would want you to live a full, happy life and you can only do that if you try and put the past in the past..."

Gabriella's eyes closed and she brought a hand to her head, silently telling herself not to get mad at the reminder about why she didn't talk about Troy with anyone anymore.

"I...I just...I just want things to be okay with us, mom," she whispered, grasping the fabric of her skirt under her fist as she tried to keep her voice steady. "I don't want to fight anymore."

"I don't want to fight anymore either, baby," her mom whispered. "I'm sor..."

"Please don't apologise," Gabriella cut her off. She couldn't hear a fake apology – they both knew that deep down, her mom wasn't sorry and Gabriella didn't want to think about that anymore. It had happened and it couldn't be changed now. "I just...I just wanted to let you know that no matter how much it still hurts, I do love you mom and I don't want this to be between us anymore."

"Okay," she could hear the tears in her mom's voice. "I...I like that idea. Thank you."

"Don't thank me, Mom," Gabriella whispered. "Please."

She heard her mom laugh slightly. "Okay – so, in the business of being on good terms, would you like to tell me about your date tonight?"

Gabriella's eyes snapped open and she felt her breathing accelerate as her annoyance from earlier returned. "It wasn't a date, it was an ambush. I was supposed to be meeting Taylor." Gabriella hissed, still seething at her best friend's antics.

"Oh...I just...Taylor mentioned..."

"Taylor was wrong," Gabriella said with a low voice. "I would never..."

"Okay," her mom cut her off quickly, perhaps sensing the change in mood. "Don't blame Taylor, honey. She said you were doing better and perhaps thought you were ready."

"Never," Gabriella whispered. "It will never be anyone else. I don't understand why people are so unwilling to listen to that?"

"Everyone just wants you to be happy, that's all. We will make mistakes though...it's not an exact science."

Gabriella bit back the retort she wanted to make about them making more mistakes than anyone and took a deep breath, wanting to end this portion of the conversation. She hated being this bitter – she had hated it for fourteen months, but she couldn't help but feel the things she felt. "So...tell me about what you've been up to, mom."

And just like that the conversation was steered into a better direction as Gabriella did her best to talk to her mom about anything and everything. She knew that it wouldn't make it better, or make up for the months of estrangement, but she hoped that by making this effort that she was somehow going to make things easier for her mom.

When the conversation had drawn to a close, she couldn't help but feel some sort of pang in her chest. She wasn't sure what she would call it – a longing perhaps, or a regret that this was the most meaningful conversation she had had with her mother in months, guilt that she was going to hurt her, or perhaps even a tweak of shame that even after all this, things still weren't going to be right between them.

"I guess I'll let you go now, Gabi," her mom said jovially, and Gabriella didn't even think to correct her for not using her full name. "It was...I don't have the words to say how much this means to me. I mean...I understood, but it was...it was so hard..."

"I'm sorry," Gabriella could only whisper in response hoping it would be an all encompassing apology that covered everything. "I do still love you, Mom."

"I know, baby. When I get back, you and I will sit down and talk about everything – and this time I swear I will listen and not try and force things, okay? We'll work out how to fix things..."

"Things will be okay now," Gabriella replied with a last glance at her ring. "You don't need to worry about me. I think...I know I've got through the worst. Everything will be better now."

"What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, right?"

Her mom's phrasing was teasing, trying to slot back into the relationship they had 14 months earlier, but Gabriella didn't pick up on the joke. Instead she could only see the wisdom of the phrasing.

"Exactly."

* * *

_Gabriella sighed as she sunk down in the soft leather sofa and held her coffee cup in her hand. The decor, the space, the furniture were all neutral colours, there was a faint smell of lavender in the air and the whole room was designed to create the illusion of comfort. The illusion was in vain though as Gabriella had been coming to this room for the best part of a year and at no point had she felt remotely comfortable. _

_The middle aged woman looked at her with a friendly smile, her caramel hair bouncing on her shoulder and a soft purr to her voice. She looked more like an art-teacher than a therapist, but she realised that was probably intentional. She was sat in this room for an hour twice a week and in all that time, Gabriella was unsure whether this facade that Dr Suarez gave out was any more genuine than the one that she used. She used to be good at reading people, and Gabriella doubted that she had seen one genuine smile on her therapists face, and she wondered whether, in reality, Dr Suarez ached for a more formal practice where she could be the cold nosed therapist instead of the nicely, softly, buddy one that she was trying to be. Or maybe she was just frustrated that so far she was no further forward with Gabriella and was frustrated with the younger woman._

_The more Gabriella thought about it, the more that seemed likely. She frowned slightly – she had never intended to be a difficult person. She was always helpful and easy to get along with. _

"_What is happiness to you?" Gabriella blinked out her thoughts as the ten minutes of silence was broken by the question._

"_Excuse me?"_

"_I'm just curious – we're clearly, yet again, not going to talk about the accident, or your feelings about Troy or your mother and although we could talk about college, or graduation, or your latest job interview I think I would like to try something else today. So a simple question – you can have anything in the universe, there is a genie in a lamp and he's willing to grant you anything your heart desire's so, tell me what it is. What would you need to be happy? Some people it's money, other people it's family or popularity. What do you need?"_

_Troy. She needed Troy, but she couldn't say that because she knew that wasn't the answer she was supposed to give. She immediately began running through potential answers in her head, and what each one would say before she spoke. "I need...I need...stability, I think."_

_It wasn't a good answer, but it was about as truthful as she could give. She felt off balance, lacking in equilibrium and like she didn't fit in her own life anymore. Perhaps amnesia would be a better answer – if she couldn't remember what it felt like before everything happened, perhaps she could fool herself into believing that she was really happy again. _

"_You want to know what a friend of mine thinks? We were in college and for her sociology paper she wrote about how happiness is a flawed social concept. She said that we were born into this world in discontent and we leave it the same way – no one is ever completely happy with their lot. Everyone wants to be richer, or smarter, or more beautiful or have a better house, or car, or kids. No one can achieve true happiness, because by nature, we are a greedy and demanding species who are never happy with their lot."_

"_That's a very, very cynical way to think of anything..." Gabriella said as she shook her head, missing the small smirk coming from the woman as she raised the cup to her lips. "People can be completely happy. People sometimes are happy with what they have."_

"_You think so? When you are born you want food, you want comfort, you want something – when you grow up you want that toy the kid next door has, you want more popularity, you want the perfect boyfriend, or the car or the grades and then you grow up and you want a bigger house, or nicer clothes, or more money, or a job where you can work less – no one has everything that truly constitutes being completely happy."_

"_That's not true. At all," Gabriella said softly. "Happiness isn't about owning things, it's about knowing who you are, being complete and recognising that all the other stuff - the car, the house, the job, and the money is inconsequential at the end of the day."_

"_For you," Doctor Suarez said with a shrug as she kept her eye on Gabriella. "For you, being happy is dependent on something else as well – so who is to say that the theory is wrong?"_

"_The theory is wrong because when a person is happy – they don't desire anything other than what they have. I didn't desire the big house, or designer clothing, or a fancy car, or courtside seats – I was happy with what we had."_

"_And now?"_

"_Now? Now...I don't know...everything...it's just...not like that..." she answered honestly, not even aware that this was the most in depth she'd ever gone in terms of her own private thinking in all of her therapy sessions that her mom and Troy's parents had guilt tripped her into having. She didn't know what happiness was now because the person who made her happy was gone and was never going to come back._

"_Well, what would it take for you to be happy? You can have anything in the world so what does your heart desire? What is the one thing that someone could give you that would make you stand up and dance around like a lunatic in happiness."_

_Gabriella bit down on her instinct to immediately answer 'Troy' even though they both knew that was what she wanted to say and especially as they both knew that was something she would never have again. It had been thirteen months, and she still needed him today as much as she had then and every day she promised herself it would be different, and every day it was still the same. The idea that she could easily go another fifty or sixty years like this in a sort of half life, where she would smile and laugh and look happy on the outside but would never actually be happy was enough to make her want to breakdown and cry right there and then. She believed in fate and destiny and people could say as many times as they wanted about her eventually moving on and meeting someone else, but she knew it wouldn't happen. No one would ever fill that hole – and to be honest, she didn't want anyone else. She was Troy's and just because he wasn't there anymore didn't mean that anything had changed. She only ever wanted to be his._

_So, with that being the case - could she live that fifty or sixty years without ever being genuinely happy again? Could anyone?_

_That was when it happened. In the second that she contemplated the question the answer popped into her head. Fate had dictated that they met, fell in love and gave everything to each other and then it had taken him from her but...the concept of forever went beyond a natural life. Forever wasn't eighty years – forever was infinite. Forever didn't take into account anything so why did it have to end because of the bastard running a red light?_

_The answer was clear to her – it didn't. She had died three times and all three times someone had forced her back to this sham life. If it had been left to nature, she would have died that day alongside him and everyone would have been sad, but been comforted by the knowledge that they were together, forever. They were supposed to be together but because of some glitch, it hadn't worked out that way leaving her here alone and him there alone. It was never supposed to be that way and if he couldn't come back to her, then..._

_For the first time since that day she felt a real, genuine smile form on her lips as she thought about it. Of course it wouldn't be easy, and of course it would take some time – she wouldn't do something like this on the spur but as she took a deep breath she felt calm wash through her at long last. She had felt haunted, tense and constantly weighted since her accident, but now...now it was like she was free of that. Everything made sense. The fleeting thought that had crossed her mind daily that had been so taboo in the past, now made so much sense and refused to be ignored any longer._

_Forever. Fate. They were intertwined and she finally understood what she needed. All she needed was him so why was she waiting? Who dictated that the ending of this fairytale had to be conventional? No one. She was supposed to be dead just now and it was just luck that she was alive at all. It didn't make sense that she had to wait for her Once Upon A Time to happen – the damn fairytale had started in Colorado, so why exactly had she wasted so much time apart from him when deep down she knew for it to work out properly it would have to end like this?_

"_Gabriella?"_

_She looked up to see her therapist looking at her oddly. "Yes?"_

"_You were going to tell me what you think you need to be happy again."_

"_Time," she said with a small smile, the plan formulating in her head as she made a mental checklist of what she would have to do to make sure this was the right decision. "Just...yeah, I think a little more time and I could be really happy."_

"_Gabriella," Dr Suarez said slowly, as she leant forward on the chair, clearly wondering as to what this sudden enlightenment was caused by. "It has been thirteen months...what makes you think that time will change anything now?"_

_Gabriella bit her lip to stop the giggles escaping as she looked up, her voice clear, her eyes wide and her smile genuine. "Because...everyone deserves a happy ending, right?"_

_

* * *

_

She took one last look round her home and instead of feeling the need to cry, she felt a smile come to her face. This was the right decision and although she knew it was selfish, she knew that everyone would understand. As she walked over to the table and double checked that she had left her rent-cheque in the pile of letters she had dutifully addressed to everyone, and that the packages containing little things that she believed her family and friends may like of hers were laid out beside the letters on the table along with her suitcase full of clothes and all the rest of her belongings, and that she hadn't forgot anyone she felt peace wash over her.

She wanted to make this whole situation as easy as possible for everyone – she knew it would still hurt them, but she had to try and make them understand which is why she had contacted her mom, why she had written to Troy's parents telling them all the funny stories she could remember of Troy in LA that they had never heard before and why she had written to their friends, explaining and apologising for everything. Apologising for not driving better that night, for not being stronger the past year, for letting the pair of them move to LA, for hurting them twice. She wanted them to know everything, she needed them to know that she wasn't making a spur of the moment decision and that it was the right thing to do and that no matter what, there was nothing they could have done, or said that would have made her make a different decision. She wanted to make it as easy on them as possible, and although she knew she could just leave town, disappear and do it, she wanted it to be over quickly. She wanted to spare them the months of wondering, of worrying, of fearing the worst.

The only thing she regretted about this decision was that she was hurting the people she loved and that was why she had spent so long trying to make it as easy as possible. As much as it hurt, she just wanted everything to be as simple for them as possible so she had tied up all the loose ends she could think of.

She owed them that.

She walked to the mirror in her bedroom and sat down and looked at her reflection and for the first time in fourteen months, she smiled and could see herself looking back at her. It wasn't a fake smile, it wasn't dull eyes that she pretended were caused by tiredness and it wasn't the character she had adopted to help convince everyone, even herself, that everything was fine. When she looked in the mirror today it was the first time in fourteen months that she recognised the person staring back at her.

"Today," she whispered to herself, her hand going out to touch her reflection like it did every night as she re-worded her daily promise to herself. "Today is the day it stops hurting. Today is the day it won't be an act."

Closing her eyes and opening them again, she gasped as she swore she saw his reflection behind her which caused her to spin almost instinctively, praying that he was there, that it was all some awful dream and that she had finally woken up. She knew deep down that her mind was playing tricks on her, that he wasn't there, but she couldn't help wishing...

Taking a deep breath, and ignoring the stab of pain the realisation that he still wasn't there caused, she smiled again as she turned back to the mirror again. So he wasn't in the apartment, so he wasn't there to hold her hand and guide her through this, so she was doing this physically on her own - it didn't matter. She knew that in all the ways that counted he was with her as surely as if he was standing there stroking her hair as she did it. She knew it and nothing changed that. She glanced back, and caught his grin behind her again, and instead of turning she felt herself smile back before she turned away again. It was time. It was beyond time. He had waited too long - they had waited too long already.

She took one last moment to mentally sweep their apartment and made sure that there was nothing more she could do to make things easier on everyone before she said a soft prayer, begging for redemption and stood and opened her window wide, letting the cool evening air flow through the room so she could feel the cool breeze one last time as she opened the bottle of tablets and swallowed a handful with a drink of water, and then picked up her pen for one final letter.

She thought about the absurdity of her situation for a moment and felt a tear stream down her face unbidden. It wasn't that she was sad about what she was doing but it was more that she was sad about why she was doing it. He should never have died and she knew that regardless of what everyone told her, that she was at least partially responsible for the fact that he had. The awkwardness with Chad and the guys, the tension with his parents and the looks some of his teammates had shot at her the few times she had seen them all told her that they knew her part in it.

She would have given anything to have swapped places with him although she suspected that if the situation had been reversed that the end result would have been similar. Maybe he was stronger than she was, perhaps he would have gone on and lived a long and happy life with a wife and a family, but she wasn't sure. She wouldn't have held it against him if he had, but deep down she suspected that it was unlikely. He would have been as miserable as she is and it would have killed him just as slowly as it was killing her.

She could hand on heart say she had tried everything she could. She had taken the therapy, she had boxed up the photos, hidden the clothes and the jewellery and she had still went out with their friends, and laughed, and joked. She had graduated college, she had secured a job, and she hadn't shut herself away and cried all the time. She had survived, she just hadn't lived.

This final decision hadn't been easy, but she knew that it was the right thing. She wasn't going to regret it and she hoped and prayed that everyone else would understand as well. She just had to explain herself to the only person who could possibly understand what she was going through and although she knew that he would never read it, part of her needed to feel like she had said it because she had never had the opportunity to say it to him before. She thought for a moment as she took a few more pills before she began writing. "Hey Wildcat..."

* * *

_Once upon a time, the girl looks in the mirror and sees the boy looking back at her and knows that she's making the right decision so she puts her mangled engagement ring that had to be cut off her because it had been crushed into her skin by the force of the crash back on, along with the damaged necklace that she never wanted to take off and downs a bottle of sleeping pills before she writes a letter and for the first time in a year, she feels whole again. When the girl closes her eyes she knows she'll be in a better place and by magic she will awaken to the boy kissing her lips happy in the knowledge that finally they can both live happily ever after, where forever means forever. The end._

_The end was really a year ago though – this is really the beginning. The beginning of forever._

_

* * *

_

AN – so, there you go, it's over. As you can imagine, this part was a pain to write which combined with work wasn't codusive to a quick update. Um...if you haven't read ATKH's, please feel free – it's basically the continuation of this part. I might end up posting it on this anyway as a sort of epilogue, but we'll see. Thank you all so much for taking the time to read and review this – Know it has been a bit heavy going in the later chapters, but hopefully the happy stuff in the beginning helps balance it out. I think I'm going to be camped in the happy HSM writing aisle for a while so please don't automatically think that all my fic are going to be angsty. ;) Special thanks to everyone who nominated this for the fanfic awards at between the lines LJ, in particular Van and Holly – you guys are amazing writers and it means a lot that you went out your way too nominate this..


	7. Little April Showers

Little April Showers

**AN- It's been a while for this story and after the way it ended a lot of people are probably wondering how on earth there can be a new chapter for this all things considered. I recently took part in a fandom wide auction called wildcatsgivebac which was trying to raise money for the tragedy in Japan. It was a wonderful cause and around $1000 has already been raised (and there are still auctions for various donated pieces of merchandise taking place so please check those out if you can) and a lot of fanfic writers took part in it. As part of the auction I was asked by the wonderful miltymouse to write an excerpt from TBOF, set before the car crash. She wanted to see Troy & Gabriella happy and get a little glimpse of them work on the map that Gabriella tore down to please her mother after the crash, and this is what I came up with. I hope it fits the description and that you all enjoy it.**

**As always – the part in italics at the start of the fic comes from the companion fic '_All The King's Horses_' – if you haven't read it, I hope you check it out.**

* * *

_I wish we had jumped on a plane and went snorkelling in Hawaii or backpacking in Australia or jumped in your truck and broke down in every town as we travelled across America._

* * *

If there was one positive thing about living in California, it was that for the most part the weather was predictable. Sure, there were slight fluctuations in temperature but for the most part it was various shades of warm and dry. There would be rain showers on occasion, sometimes a little wind, but for the most part you knew what you were getting and Troy Bolton, creature of habit that he was, liked that.

Plus he wouldn't lie that the fact that his seasonal wardrobe didn't have to be particularly extensive was an added bonus - he was a student after all and was saving up to get married so naturally if he could save a few dollars then all the better. (Not that Gabriella bought that as an excuse and insisted it was his hatred of shopping that was stopping him as opposed to any pretence of saving money. He couldn't really disagree...)

Regardless of the reasoning, the end result was the same and it worked for him most of the time. Unless of course there was freak weather...like crazy rain-storms in April that were already creating mini ponds in the parking lot and with no sign of stopping. Freak weather not unlike the weather he was frowning at from inside his truck at that moment, even though he had been parked a full five minutes already.

"Stupid freak weather," he muttered with a shake of his head.

It wasn't that he had anything against the rain, but it was late and he was tired and clowning around in a downpour was infinitely less fun when he was on his own than when he was with his fiancée and since he was pretty sure that she would be snuggled up on their sofa with a blanket and a hot chocolate at that very moment, he was on his own and as there didn't appear to be any break in the downpour forthcoming he was just going to have to deal with it.

In hindsight he probably should have listened to Gabriella when she had told him to take a jacket with him when she left that morning. In hindsight it had been good advice, but it was April and sometimes he just couldn't resist. He grinned – if nothing else his impending sogginess was going to be funny as he watched her trying to resist saying 'I told you so' as she fought the deep rooted fear of becoming a nagging wife one day.

The fact that she was going to be his wife in any way was all he cared about, but she insisted she wasn't going to conform to the stereotype and who was he to argue? It just made it more fun to try and push her nagging limits every so often, even if it was difficult because she was infinitely patient with him so pushing her buttons even playfully was difficult and he'd never want to push her too far. They had survived nearly 3 years in California with only one major argument (two hours was a long time for them) and that was not a record that he was willing to risk now that they were engaged.

It was funny – they had been engaged for a month and he still wasn't over the buzz of it. Introducing his future wife, his fiancée still gave him a cheap thrill and it still amazed him some of the looks he got. People thought he was crazy at wanting to be 'tied down' so early (their own families shared that thinking at first) and he could occasionally see some people eyeing up Gabriella as though they were checking for pregnancy, which was frankly idiotic and insulting. Clearly they didn't get it, but it wasn't like that was anything new.

"People are morons. Kinda like you are, Bolton for sitting in a truck instead of cuddling up to your fiancée," he muttered as he took a deep breath, grabbed his bag and opened the door before diving out, slamming the door behind him and running through the vertical columns of rain, cursing the fact that he couldn't park closer.

He had barely been outside for thirty seconds before he was inside and heading towards the elevator, glancing at his watch and mentally congratulating himself on his time. It was always a difficult time of year when the basketball season had just finished (without a national title, again) and he didn't have training or games to look forward to. He had ways of burning off energy – he and Gabriella went running most mornings and there was other things he still loved to do, but he was a competitive person by nature and sometimes that involved even competing with himself...or in this case, competing with a weather system.

When he got to the 7th floor he got out and went to their apartment but as soon as he opened the door he knew that instead of charming his fiancée into hopefully spending the stormy night snuggled up in bed (stormy weather did something to her and he was not going to complain...) he had to instead wonder where the hell she was. The house was in darkness, and there was no sign that anyone had been here since they had left earlier that day, which as it was nearly 10pm, was not normal as she always got home from her shift at the coffee shop before 7pm on Tuesday.

"Gabriella?"

He ran a hand through his wet hair and dropped his backpack at the door as he turned the lights on and looked around to see if there was a note about a last minute study session or something that came up because there was no way that she would be this late without letting him know, especially on a night like this. Realistically he knew that more than likely she went to the library and lost track of time, but still...all he had was images of her losing control of the car in this weather and ending up wrapped around a lamp-post or worse...

Shaking those thoughts out his head he went to his bag to grab his phone but before he could even open it up he heard keys in the door and he exhaled deeply, visibly relaxing at her presence as she walked through the door.

"Gabri..."

She lifted her sodden head, and for the first time Troy got a close look at her and felt his eyes widen at her appearance. Her clothes were shrunk into her body, parts of her shirt almost translucent due to how wet it was but, thankfully, most of it being covered by a thin jacket that was now dripping and leaving puddles on the floor at her feet. He could hear her shoes squeak as she walked over to drop her bag down and her hair was stuck flat to her head as she shivered and walked further into the room, offering him a small smile as she did so. As bad as the weather was, it would have been physically impossible for her to get so wet just by walking from the car to the apartment, so he was confused as to why she was looking like that, even as he immediately walked to the sofa and grabbed the nearest throw to wrap around her shivering form. "What happened to you?"

"What do you think?" she asked as she accepted the throw with a shake of her head but ended up sitting it on the chair beside her. "Why didn't you answer your phone?"

He blinked in confusion and shrugged. "I had it in my bag and forgot about it, why?"

She kicked off her shoes before attempting to peel the jacket from her body, her face scrunching adorably as she did so. "My car broke down outside the library," she shivered and shook her head. "I called a breakdown place, but they were going to take hours and said it would be an extra charge because it was after 6 and a Friday so I told them to leave it. I was going to catch the bus home, but I could only get one to Morrison..." she sniffed as she offered him a small smile. "It wasn't raining when I got off there, so I figured it was only a couple of miles so I'd walk."

"At night?"

"Troy," she giggled as she shook her head and gestured to her drenched body. "The time was the least of my problems. I had barely walked anywhere when the sky opened up and it still hasn't stopped. I tried calling you from the library and again on the bus and when I got off..."

Suddenly he felt awful. Most days he carried his phone around with him, but he had been so entrenched in what he had been doing that he hadn't wanted to give himself the distraction possibility. He hadn't even thought anything of it. "Babe, I'm so sorry – I was working and I just didn't even think to check. Are you okay? What happened to the car?"

"I don't know. The engine just won't turn over – it's like the battery just died on me. I have no idea what the problem is. I've never had any problems with my car."

She pouted slightly as she spoke and Troy could hear the half of the sentence she didn't say of 'if it had been your truck I would have expected it...' but let it slide. It was true that she had a very reliable car and that had been something he had insisted on just in case something like this happened. "I'll have a look at it tomorrow – it probably just needs a jump-start or something."

"Thank you, Wildcat," she smiled as she stepped towards him, but stopped before she reached him as she peered at his wet shirt. "You didn't take a jacket?"

He shrugged, but couldn't disguise the smirk that crossed his face. "My truck didn't break down, so I didn't really need it."

"I'm ignoring your bad attempt at gloating and going to get changed," she said as she leant up and kissed his cheek. "Since I'm the one plagued by car problems tonight, you can console me my making something hot to drink while I jump in a hot shower."

"You never console me when my car breaks down," he said as she backed away. "You just laugh, make fun and threaten to sell parts of it for scrap."

"I never threaten to sell parts of it," she defended as she stood in the door towards the bedroom. "No one would be stupid enough to give us money for it."

Before he could respond, she ducked away and closed the door, giggling loudly as she did so. He couldn't help but grin at the sound, even as he tore off his own soaked shirt and headed to the kitchen to heat some milk and gather some food for them. He wasn't going to count his chickens, but he wasn't going to lie and say that he was unhappy that Gabriella seemed far more playful than pissed off with her car troubles and as such he felt quietly confident that turning on the lights in the lounge wouldn't be necessary.

It was barely fifteen minutes when he went, locked the door and took the mugs of hot chocolate and the bags of marshmallows and the junk food they generally stored for nights like this into the bedroom and sat them down beside the bed only to see that she had left the window open.

"Is there a reason why you left the window open, Gabriella?" he called into the bathroom as he walked over to the window and closed it. "Years of having a house with a balcony has given you claustrophobic tendencies."

It was true – she would leave the window open in all weather and no matter how many times he shut it, she would invariably sneak out of bed and open it again.

"Sorry, Wildcat? I didn't hear."

He turned around at the sound of her voice as she ran a brush through her hair with a shy smile as she looked at him, her face still flushed from the heat of her shower. "What is it?"

"Damn," he said as he shook his head. It was almost unfair how she could render him a stuttering mess sometimes. She didn't even have to do much either, which was the really amazing thing but having her stand there, fresh out the shower with some ridiculous Sesame Street pyjama set that in no universe could be classed as pyjamas he was floored. "Is that Oscar?"

She grinned at him and nodded as she gave a playful whirl. "They're new. I found them online! Do you like? You can almost never get Oscar stuff anywhere."

He nodded. "He should look happier than he is if he's going to be on clothes like that."

"Oscar's a grouch," she said with a pout as she walked over to him and ran her hands up his chest. "He's never happy."

"Is his grouchiness contagious, because if so I could help you take them off...?"

She shook her head, biting her lip and he counted slowly to keep himself calm. "Only you would try and turn something as innocent as Oscar into a reason for getting into my pants."

"In fairness, they don't really count as pants," he teased as he leant forward, pressing his lips to her neck. "It's almost unfair."

"I knew you'd like them," she sighed, tilting her head and he couldn't help but grin against her skin. "Mmmm, Troy...not that I don't love where this is going but our drinks are going to get cold."

"Uh-huh," he said distractedly as trailed his mouth down to her shoulder and nudged the green strap of her vest off her shoulder slightly. "You should wear more green..."

"You..." she pulled back, flushed and looking outrageously tempting and dishevelled as her strap hung around the top of her arm and she raised a hand to halt his advance. "You do not play fair, Wildcat."

"All's fair in love and..."

"Noooo," she said as she took a step away and righted her clothes and her hair. "We're turning into one of those couples again."

"What couples?" he asked but he knew exactly what type of couple she was talking about. It had been a 'problem' when they had first moved in together a couple of years earlier, and it was a problem again since the engagement. Not that either of them particularly minded, but they did occasionally take turns at trying to be responsible while the other took it as a challenge to try and convince them of how stupid that stance was. He wasn't embarrassed to admit that when it was his turn to be the 'sensible' one that she generally changed his mind in about a minute. She was extremely persuasive when she wanted to be, it had to be said...

"Those couples who spend so much time in bed that they forget what the outside world looks like and don't care what the rest of the civilised world is up to."

"It's raining so the outside world is wet and miserable tonight and everyone, if they are smart, will be doing what we're doing," he said as he took a step closer. "Problem solved."

"That's lousy reasoning, Wildcat."

He saw her bite back a smile and shake her head. He knew he could probably talk her round relatively easily but he knew how to pick his battles and since he knew the pay-off would be worth the delay he could play nice. "Fine, what would you like to do?"

"Hmmm," she said as she eyed him suspiciously while he did his best to keep an innocent look on his face. "Let's just...sit down, have out hot chocolate, talk...maybe watch a movie..."

"That's not going to let us see what the rest of the civilised world is doing, you know," he said as he walked closer to her and leant down to her ear. "But I'm not going to complain."

Before she could even say anything he jumped onto the bed, smirked at her and popped a marshmallow in his mouth.

"It isn't going to work," she said as she straightened up and walked around the other side of the bed and sitting down on it, her legs folded up underneath her.

"What?" he didn't even feign innocence this time as she narrowed her eyes at him dangerously. "You're paranoid."

"Uh-huh," she rolled her eyes before giggling and batting his hand away from her leg before sinking down beside him, putting her head on his shoulder. "Behave so we can cuddle or else I'm going to go call Taylor."

"Oooh, blackmail," he murmured as he kissed her damp hair. "Fine - I'll be good."

"Good," she murmured as she wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her face against his chest and sighed. "I love the rain."

"You didn't love it so much an hour ago," he responded as he rubbed her barely covered shoulder. "I guarantee when you were walking in it you weren't thinking you loved it."

He felt her laugh against him and knew he caught her. "What were you thinking, Gabriella?"

"At first I was thinking about East High and dancing on the roof with you," she placed a kiss on his neck. "That was the last time I remember being caught in a rainstorm like that. I remembered dancing and thinking that it was the best feeling ever and that it would be impossible for me to be as happy ever again. Little did I know that it would be nothing to how happy I'd feel once we came out here."

He smiled down at her and cupped her cheek tenderly. He could remember that day in High School clearer than just about anything. They had both caught cold after spending a day in wet clothing, but it had been more than worth it. "I think I still remember how to waltz a little."

She beamed at him. "Really? Maybe we should waltz at the wedding."

"I might need a few more lessons so I don't completely embarrass you, but I could probably agree to that," he agreed as she leant up and kissed him. "You said at first you were thinking of that. What were you thinking afterwards?"

She giggled at him and shook her head. "Well, after I thought about that and how perfect it was, I then realised that this time I still had another mile to walk before I could get dry and I started thinking how much I would love to vacation somewhere dry right about now instead of dealing with more rain."

He laughed and shook his head. They didn't have a real vacation planned for this year and instead they were saving up for an elaborate month long honeymoon after they graduated. It was a work in progress, but that was going to be their foray into going on having an adventure. "We could go on a vacation this year, you know - even just a few days somewhere. Or we could always..."

She lifted her head to look at him. "Could always what?"

"Bring the honeymoon forward. You know it's not that far between here and Vegas..."

"You want to elope and have me killed before the school year's out."

"I would never let our parents kill you," he assured her. "If anything you'd have to protect me because they all know that I'm the bad influence in that regard."

"I'd protect you, but they'd probably just take me out to get to you then."

"At least we'd be together," he joked with a shake of his head. He was mostly joking about eloping. It was a fact that more likely than not their parents would kill them, or at the very least guilt trip them for the next twenty years and as appealing as it was to marry Gabriella right away, he wasn't going to pretend that their reaction wouldn't put a dampener on the occasion. Still thought, it was nice to dream sometimes. "We could give them a call from Vegas and tell them to fly in. Best of both worlds."

"You need to stop, because one day I will agree with you," she said as she finally sat up and grinned at him and he mimicked her pose as he handed her the rapidly cooling drink he had made for her. "I just can't help but think how good it would be to avoid all the stress."

"We could get married in May, be in Europe in June..."

"Need to be careful of the May date – we have basketball tickets at the start, so you'll need to plan around it."

"This is why I love you," he said as he raised her hand and kissed it. "You are as smart as you are beautiful. So yes, new plan – we watch the Lakers, we celebrate by eloping and then we go travel around Europe. Sound good?"

"Sounds amazing," she agreed with a sigh. "Of course...our parents still kill us in that scenario unless we just move to Europe full time."

"We could be on the run, like in the Bourne movies," he laughed as he lay down on his stomach and looked up at her. "We could send cryptic postcards so they would know we were okay, but quickly leave the country so they couldn't trace us."

"They'll have enough trouble finding us as it is!" she giggled before she shook her head. "We still don't even have a proper route ourselves, Wildcat."

"That's part of the adventure! We're being badass!"

"We are not being 'badass' about our honeymoon. You know, since we have time to kill tonight that might be a good idea of something to do. Give me a second," she said as she stood up and almost ran out the room. He had a pretty good idea where she was off to so didn't bother moving much as he waited on her, and sure enough less than a minute later she came in clutching the board that they liked to hang on the wall most of the time. It was a simple construction – a paper map pinned to a message board, complete with pushpins and post-it notes but for more than a year it had been their shared post graduation dream. "I always forget how many places we plan on visiting."

She sat the map on the bed and he sat up beside her and couldn't help but smile as he looked at it. To most people it would be chaotic to even make sense of it, but it was pretty obvious to them. Gabriella, on the day he had asked her to move in with him, had been the first to mention having an 'adventure' before they joined the real world after college and he had bought her a map as a moving in present along with a dart that she had fired randomly to find out where this adventure would take place. She'd hit Europe and the world map had then been replaced by a European map and every so often they would hear of a place, or a city or a relic and add it onto the map. That was the reason it was now filled with pushpins and post-it notes and diagrams as they would randomly add places they'd be interested in visiting. There was even an accompaniment notebook with subsections for places to visit within individual cities they were going to. It was going to be an adventure, but an organised adventure.

"The problem we have with this map," he squinted at it. "Is that we aren't hitting anywhere that we can be guaranteed good weather even in the summer. We could be going from Californian rain to European rain, which is pretty much the same only colder and greyer."

"But it's European, so that would make it better," she bartered as she leant into him. "Imagine, walking along the Seine in the rain..."

"We have lots planned for Paris already," he said as he pointed to the map, and he couldn't help but laugh as he saw the little stick figures with joined hands and a rain cloud above their heads. "When...? Gabriella," he grinned as he turned her head to look at him, his fingers holding her chin as he leant in and kissed her. "We can't guarantee the weather you know even when you deface the map with your crazy requests. You know, most people want sunshine on honeymoon – it guarantees fewer clothes will be worn."

"One day won't make a difference," she giggled. "We'll get sunshine in Italy."

He frowned at her then. "I'd like the Italy plan more if I didn't know the Italian stereotype was based on fact. I propose we skip Italy and add in somewhere like...Switzerland."

"We can't go to Europe and skip Italy – it would be like skipping Britain," she said as she turned back to the map. "Who knows if we'll ever get the chance again? Besides you shouldn't believe everything people tell you, Wildcat. If stereotypes were accurate we would never have even met each other."

"Fate loved us so it would have happened eventually. Gabi," he whined as he looked at her, even as she was looking at the map. "Would you not rather go somewhere more exciting? Italy is so...historic and boring and you know Casanova isn't the competition any guy wants on his honeymoon."

"We'll skip Venice if it will make you feel better," she turned to look at him. "Besides, you know you want to go to the Parthenon so you can pretend to be Joaquin Phoenix in Gladiator and do that thumbs down thing you always do when it's on TV."

Her accompanied 'thumbs down' gesture made him laugh. "I think that would make us look like tourists, don't you?"

"Only if you randomly start quoting it. I mean seriously, Troy..." she held up a post-it and raised an eyebrow. "'It vexes me, I'm terribly vexed'? I don't know what's worse – that being on the map or that I recognise what it's from. I half expect you to get an outfit in your quest for realism."

"I'm not opposed to dressing up," he said as he plucked the post-it out her hand and re-attached it to the side of the board before sliding in behind her so he could rest his head on her shoulder. "Just generally not so publicly."

"We could do it for the Halloween party," she giggled. "But if you were Commodus I'd have to be Lucilla and I'm not sure that would be morally sound all things considered unless you could keep your hands to yourself."

He didn't think that was likely if their previous Halloween's were anything to go by. He could still remember the first Halloween they were in California. Before they left Albuquerque she had joked with him that she would dress in leather for Halloween to fulfil his 'badass' fantasy and he had honestly forgotten about it...until he had shown up at her door on Halloween and was greeted with her in skin-tight leather pants, a vest top and the darkest makeup he had ever seen her wear. She was the perfect 'bad girl' and he'd pretty much kept his promise that he wouldn't let her out the apartment that night and most of the following day. Subsequent Halloweens had seen similar scenarios, although occasionally they did hit the odd Halloween party albeit briefly.

"You could be a nameless Roman woman..." he helpfully offered. It probably wouldn't beat the leather, or the superhero theme they went with the year previous, but it would be pretty close. "I'm easy on the specifics."

"We'll see...maybe it'll get your historical fascination out your system for next year."

"You know you'd make a more convincing argument, Ms Montez if I didn't know you want to do the balcony thing in Verona – which isn't very honeymoon like it has to be said."

"Romeo & Juliet is the ultimate romance – how is that not suitable for a honeymoon?"

"Um – they both die in the end. Not exactly the fairy tale – 'once upon a time two people met, fell in love, overcame all obstacles and then died tragically before they could even enjoy the happily ever after. The End.'"

She sat up then and slapped his arm gently. "They were together forever. Happily ever after doesn't have an expiration date – it lasts beyond lifetimes so although they couldn't be together in Verona, they could be together afterwards. That's what's romantic about the story."

He paused and looked at her. "You are far too smart to fall for such cheap dramatic tricks. Romeo was an asshole and Juliet was a drama queen. We're already more romantic than any cheap Shakespearian crap even without the rhyming couplets and tights."

He turned her around so one of her legs was swung over his and stroked a finger down her cheek. "And, I already have climbed on your balcony..."

"You have," she agreed as she sighed happily, her eyes closing. "I loved it when you did that..."

He smiled against her head. He knew that, and if there was one thing he regretted about their apartment is that she was deprived of her balcony. He knew it had been a dream since she was a girl, and the fact that it brought them together... "Hmm...maybe Romeo did have the right idea. Maybe I should woo you more..."

"You woo me more than enough," she sighed. "If you were any more romantic I might just give up college and live in bed with you."

"You say that like it's a bad thi..." he began but stopped as she spun around laughing and pushed him back.

"Maybe I should woo you, Wildcat," she teased, her eyes dancing with laughter as she looked at him. "It is the 21st century after all and I am a modern woman."

He grinned at her as he lifted his head so he could kiss her. "You woo me plenty. Your various Sesame Street regalia definitely helps."

"Good, that's the idea," she whispered. "So...we agree on France and Italy...do you still want to go to Switzerland?"

"You know you could get me to agree to pretty much anything just now," he muttered as her hands trailed up his arms. "But no...no Switzerland. I want you in fewer clothes, not more. Let's find somewhere hot and dry and with a beach, no rain, just you and me and no historic significance. The European equivalent of snorkelling in Hawaii..."

"Hmmm, funny you should say that, because I was thinking..."

"If this is something I'm not going to like I am never discussing anything with you in bed again, because you never play fair."

"I think you might like this. I was thinking that we might start of honeymoon off and then have our vacation."

He squinted in confusion. "You don't want to travel next summer?"

"No, I do but I was thinking that before we go...everywhere else, we could maybe have a few days...just us and then leave from there to go travelling."

"Really? Where?" he asked, already liking the idea of having a couple of days just to enjoy being married. "I think it's a great idea, but would you want to hit somewhere in the US and then head to Europe, or fly to Europe via somewhere else or..."

"I was thinking somewhere in Europe. Maybe Greece," she murmured. "We could spend a few days in Kythera – it's where Aphrodite was supposed to have come to earth. It's the perfect honeymoon location with beaches and sun and caves and it's not a big tourist place and it would be perfect."

She pulled back then and he sat up so he could look at her, his hand landing on her bare leg. "I've never heard of Kythera."

"It's not the Parthenon, or walking along the Seine in the rain, or even snorkelling in Hawaii but..." she bit her lip. "It looks beautiful and romantic and I think you'd like it..."

She was blushing for some reason and he had no real idea why that would be until he grabbed the map from beside her and looked closely at it and saw a push-pin in near Greece and a couple of hearts already drawn above it. "You've been researching?"

She shrugged and grabbed his arm, pressing a kiss to the top of it. "My mom wanted to pay for our honeymoon as a wedding present, but we had so much of it already planned and I explained to her that we wanted to pay for our own vacation. She understood that but then suggested that perhaps, as a compromise, we would let her pay for a few days honeymoon before we went travelling – just so we could relax and enjoy being married first. I was going to say no, but when I thought about it so much of what we were going to do was travelling, and I'm looking forward to that so much but I think I'd kinda miss the days in bed honeymoon thing as well where we don't need to worry about trains and plane times. I know it's greedy to want both but..." she looked down and played with his hand, her face flushed. "It's the beginning of our forever, right? So let's go all out. We might never get the chance to do any of this again – in a few years we'll have a family and jobs and responsibility...let's go all out now while we have the time and the means to afford it."

He looked again at the map and nodded, his smile widening almost painfully on his face at the way she so easily talked about their future together – no question, no doubts, just facts. It made him feel ten foot tall and bulletproof, knowing that she was as clear about it as he was. "It sounds pretty much perfect. Let's do it. It sounds perfect and I have to admit, as much as I look forward to travelling with you, a few days just being married, with no sightseeing, no interruptions of timetables sounds perfect. Let's do it."

"Really?" she couldn't disguise the excitement in her voice as she looked at him and she jumped up and kissed him. "Thank you! I promise you'll love it and I figured we could leave from there, to mainland Italy or Bulgaria, or anywhere else. I just..." she kissed him again quickly before she turned back towards the map and sighed. "I can't wait to marry you, Wildcat. Part of me almost wishes we were really eloping. This year is going to be so long."

"And you're really sure I can't convince you to come to Vegas with me?" he asked as he wrapped his arms around her.

"Mmmm," she sighed as she leant back against him. "I meant what I said you know, one day I'm going to say yes and our parents will end up killing us both before we even get the chance to go anywhere."

"Ah, but as you so accurately said about Romeo & Juliet – happily ever after lasts beyond lifetimes so..." he smiled against her neck as she started laughing. "If that's true then we've nothing to lose my provoking the ire of our parents."

She shook her head and turned round so she was kneeling in front of him. "Using my own words against me. How can I argue with that?"

"You can't," he said as he reached around her and grabbed the map and slid it on the floor beside the bed. "I win due to your use of romantic logic. You want to fly or should we just jump in my truck – since my truck is the only one of our cars that is working just now..."

"Making fun of my car is not the way to encourage the happily ever after, Wildcat," she said indignantly, fighting against the natural pout she wanted to give him.

He burst out laughing at her tone. For years he had been forced to listen to jibes and jokes about his car and although he wasn't going to tempt fate too much by boasting, he couldn't help but enjoy this a little too much.

"That's it – we're not eloping anymore," she said with a dramatic sigh as she stood up and picked the map up and set it down on the dressing table. "I think a year's worth of grovelling should put me back in a marrying frame of mind again."

He lay down and grinned at her, even as she stifled her own laughter. "I bet I convince you to elope with me before Christmas. A summer at home with our mother's planning everything will convince you."

She shook her head and slowly began walking over. "What would be the terms of the bet?"

He reached over and grabbed her hip so she was standing right in front of him. "If I win, you're my wife quicker...and if you win, I'm your husband as soon as you want."

Her face broke into the most beautiful smile then and all signs of the teasing vanished as she brought her hand to his face and stroked it. "Sounds like a no lose situation to me. I accept your terms."

"I feel like I should tell you that I don't plan on playing fair," he confessed as she came up to lie down beside him. "I'm going to encourage everyone to be as obnoxious as possible with you until you have to cave in."

"Hmmm," she hummed as she wrapped her arms around him again and leant her head against his chest. "We'll see. It gives me something to look forward to after my finals."

He laughed and brought his hand to her hair, stroking it softly as he closed his own eyes, just enjoying having her lying against him. "Always happy to provide an incentive."

"Just one reason why I love you," she said as she kissed his chest softly. "I don't think the rain's going to go off tonight."

He waited a moment for her to say something else, but she just kept quiet, watching out the window while her fingers made non-descript patterns over his chest. It was blissful and calm and everything he loved about being with her and he could picture years of laying like this with her during storms, he could see them both age, and children jumping on top of them to interrupt and everything about the images just made him more and more desperate for all those things to happen. He wasn't quite ready to wish away the present for the future just yet though, not when the present with her was as good as it was.

"Okay, get up," he said as he gently sat up, bringing her up with him. She shot him a confused look and he smirked as he got up from the bed and walked over to the closet and grabbed a shirt, before grabbing a sweatshirt and firing it onto the bed for her.

"What..."

"You might want to put some clothes on, Ms Fiancée because Oscar will just get more Grouchy if you don't."

She didn't question him and just pulled on the sweatshirt and he quickly sent over a pair of her sweatpants as well which she put on without question. Once they were dressed she stood up, looking beautifully dishevelled but perfect and he couldn't help but take a step over to her and kiss her.

"Do I want to know what's going through your mind, Wildcat?"

"I was just thinking that since we're getting married soon, I'm going to need to brush up on my dancing. Care to give me another waltzing lesson, Ms Montez? Looks like the perfect weather for it."

Her face lit up and she immediately nodded and he let her grab his hand and pull him from the room, almost giddy with excitement as they both grabbed their already soaked shoes and their jackets and headed to the door. Before they could go out it though she stopped him and smiled up at him. "This is why I will always love you - you indulge me in my silliness sometimes."

"You indulge me with plenty, so I figure it's only fair," he replied with a smile. "It's also going to give me serious brownie points for when I start my earnest attempt at winning the bet."

"We'll see about that, but I hope so," she responded with a grin. "Now come on, before the roof gets flooded and we end up doing our best Gene Kelly impersonation instead of Fred Astaire."

He watched her head almost giddily down the hall towards the elevator and smiled to himself. That day back in High School, as a love-struck teenaged boy he had hoped but not really believed he would be standing here like that, yet here he was – watching his fiancée, planning a wedding, a honeymoon, a vacation, and a life together. He had gotten so lucky and although there had been the odd set-back, he could hardly believe this was his life.

"Are you okay, Troy?"

"Just thinking," he replied as he brought her hand to his lips. "About happy endings."

She reached for him and shook her head. "No, don't think happy endings. Endings aren't happy – think...happily ever afters. They can always be achieved because they are works in progress."

He laughed. "I didn't know there was a difference."

"Oh yeah, it's very complex," she said with faux gravity. "I'd explain it to you, but I worry if we delay it much longer the storm might actually get worse before we can even have one dance."

"Meh, let it rain, let it pour," he joked causing her to giggle and wrap her arms round his neck. "What we have is worth fighting for."

"You know I believe, we were meant to be," she sighed as he laughter vanished. "I really did believe that you know, even then with so much going on, so many worries and so many questions. I believed you were it for me."

"Me too," he agreed. "I'm glad we were right."

She nodded her agreement and he kissed her forehead softly before pressing the call button on the elevator and pulling the hood on her sweater up over her still damp hair as he prepared to go learn a dance he knew realistically that he probably wouldn't have to know for a year. It didn't matter though, just seeing how happy she looked, and knowing how happy he felt, he would happily spend hours reliving that perfect moment from High School over and over again.

He might not know the difference between Happy Endings and Happily Ever Afters, but at that moment he honestly didn't even care. They were just happy and as long as they were together, he knew they would stay that way and at the end of the day, whether they were dancing on a roof at 11pm on a Friday in the middle of a freak weather system or being one of 'those couples', that was all that mattered. She was right, after all, this wasn't an ending - it was just the beginning. The start of their forever.

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**Thanks for reading and I hope you all enjoyed this. Again, there are still auctions running on the wildcatsgivebac LJ group if anyone wants to make a bid for something.**

**Thanks again to miltymouse for the donation – I hope this is kinda what you were looking for.**


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